Columbia  ^nitiergftp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


THE   CHURCH 
OF     ENGLAND 

BY 

EDWARD  WILLIAM  WATSON 

Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Rogius 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical 

History,  Oxford 


J  t 


LONDON 

WILLIAMS   AND    NOKGATE 


FIRST    PRINTED    APRIL,  1914 


3  -- 


C:^ 


CONTENTS 


rHTAPTKR 

I    The  Anqlo-Saxow  Period 

PAOB 

7 

n 

The  Mediaeval  System  . 

36 

III 

Decay  of  the  Medleval  System  . 

89 

IV 

Beginning  of  the  Reformation     . 

.       113 

V 

The  Reign  op  Elizabeth 

.       134 

VI 

The  Stuarts 

150 

VII 

The  Eighteenth  Century      . 

179 

VIII 

The  Ninetebnth  Century 

206 

BrBUOQRAPHY 

253 

Index     

255 

Among  the  volumes  cf  kindred  interest  already  published  in 
this  series  are  the  fcllowing  : 

60.     Missions.     By  Mrs.  Creighton. 

14.     The  Papacy  and  Modern  Times  (1303-1870).     By 
Dr.  Wm.  Barry. 

60.     Nonconformity.     By  Principal  W.  B.  Selbie, 

68.     Comparative     Religion.     By     Principal     J,    Estlin 
Carpenter,  LL.D. 

66.     The  Making  of  the  New  Testament.     By  Prof.  B, 
W.  Bacon,  LL.D. 

84.     The  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament.     By  Prof, 
George  Moore. 


THE 

CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

CHAPTER    I 

THE   ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD 

The  history  of  the  EngHsh  Church  begins 
with  the  conversion  to  Christianity  of  the 
Enghsh  people.  There  were  already  Chris- 
tians in  all  parts  of  Great  Britain  ;  where 
the  English  had  conquered  and  settled  there 
was  a  minority  of  serfs  ;  elsewhere  a  Celtic 
population  that  was  either  independent  or 
under  English  domination.  But  these  Chris- 
tians were  to  have,  at  the  utmost,  an  influence 
upon  English  Christianity ;  they  were  not  to 
control  its  structure  or  its  character. 

The  conversion  of  the  English  was  not  an 
isolated  event.  It  was  part  of  a  change 
through  which  all  the  Teutonic  races  that 
won  new  homes  in  what  had  been  the  Roman 
Empire  had  passed  or  were  to  pass.  Latin 
Christianity  for  them  represented  a  higher 
life,  in  morals  and  civilization,  than  that  of 
7 


8       THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

their  fathers.  Its  faith,  preached  as  univers- 
ally true  and  necessary  for  salvation,  its 
worship,  impressively  carried  out,  struck 
their  imagination  and  gained  their  assent. 
This  Christianity  was  one.  There  was  no 
thought  that  Christians  could  be  Christian 
in  different  ways,  or  as  members  of  different 
communions.  Even  when  there  were  disputes 
and  misunderstandings,  as  there  were  at 
first  between  English  and  Celtic  Christians 
in  England,  they  were  at  one  in  principle. 
The  only  dispute  was  as  to  the  true  following 
of  the  rule  which  all  agreed  must  exist ;  they 
would  never  have  consented  to  differ  in  belief 
or  in  the  organization  of  their  Church.  This 
unity  was  the  lesson  that  had  been  impressed 
upon  Christians  by  great  doctrinal  struggles 
through  which  agreement  in  faith  had  been 
reached,  and  by  the  training  in  uniformity 
of  administration  which  they  had  received 
from  the  Roman  Empire,  under  which  their 
system  had  grown  up  and  after  whose  pattern 
it  had  been  largely  shaped.  In  theory  and 
in  practice  there  was  one  faith  and  one 
organization,  though  the  former  might  not 
always  be  intelligently  held  nor  the  latter 
efficiently  administered. 

There  was  nothing  strange  in  the  resolution 
of  Gregory  the  Great  to  send  a  mission  for  the 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD        9 

conversion  of  England.  As  a  Christian,  as 
Bishop  of  Rome  and  head  of  the  predominant 
Chm'ch  in  the  western  world,  it  was  natural 
that  he  should  do  so,  and  he  had  good  reason 
to  expect  success.  Gregory  was  a  man  of 
ardent  faith  and  great  governing  power. 
He  was  also  the  leading  writer  and  thinker 
of  his  day,  and  had  no  small  share  in  lower- 
ing European  thought  to  the  level  of  the 
dark  ages.  But  this,  for  practical  purposes, 
only  made  him  the  more  effective.  His 
general  outlook,  and  that  of  his  followers, 
was  so  near  to  the  thought  of  his  future 
English  converts  that  no  great  incongruity 
could  be  felt  when  the  Christian  range  of 
ideas  came  to  be  added  to  that  which  they 
had  inherited. 

In  596  Gregory  sent  forth  his  mission, 
which  reached  England  in  the  following  year. 
The  leader,  St.  Augustine,  had  some  forty 
followers.  He  was  himself  the  abbot  whom 
they  were  implicitly  to  obey  :  as  soon  as 
he  should  have  won  converts  and  have  founded 
a  Church,  he  was  charged  to  obtain  episcopal 
orders  that  he  might  rule  it.  The  chief 
members  of  the  mission  were  monks,  like  their 
chief  ;  this  fact,  and  the  smallness  of  their 
number,  were  to  be  of  decisive  importance 
for  the  history.     As   monks  they   could  be 


10     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

at  home  only  in  their  monastery  ;  they  could 
not  settle  down  here  and  there  to  pastoral 
charges.  And  the  clergy  under  the  control 
of  the  head  of  the  mission  were,  and  continued 
to  be,  quite  inadequate  in  number  to  undertake 
such  duties. 

But  this  was  a  difficulty  of  the  future. 
The  success  of  Augustine  was  immediate. 
He  landed  in  Kent,  the  nearest  and,  as  it 
happened,  the  most  important  of  the  English 
kingdoms.  King  Ethelbert  had  already  a 
Christian  wife,  and  was  soon  persuaded  to 
become  a  Christian  himself.  The  story  of  his 
conversion  has  often  been  told,  and  need  not 
be  repeated  here.  For  us  the  important  fact 
is  that  his  people  copied  him.  They  were 
in  the  tribal  stage  ;  where  the  chief  led  the 
people  followed.  This  is  true  of  all  the 
kingdoms  in  turn  and  not  of  Kent  only. 
The  old  religion  had  been  but  lightly  held  ; 
we  hear  as  little  of  persistent  adherence  to 
paganism  as  we  do  of  persecution  for  accession 
to  the  new  faith.  The  policy  of  the  mission 
was,  in  fact,  that  of  the  great  Jesuit,  St. 
Francis  Xavier,  a  thousand  years  later  in  the 
East.  The  people  were  first  to  be  secured 
by  baptism,  and  then  to  be  instructed.  The 
result  was  that  a  multitude  of  superstitions 
passed  into    English  Christianity  and  were 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      11 

but  slowly  purged  out,  their  final  decay 
dating  rather  from  the  Civil  War  of  the 
seventeenth  century  than  from  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

But  if  the  Christian  faith  was  lightly 
accepted,  it  was  on  occasion  as  lightly  dropped. 
When  Essex,  one  of  the  first  districts  to  be 
converted,  lost  its  Christian  king  and  he 
was  succeeded  by  sons  who  reverted  to 
paganism,  their  people  followed  the  example 
and  the  East  Saxons  were  among  the  last  of 
the  English  to  become  permanently  Christian. 
Such  a  reaction  w^as  exceptional  and  tempor- 
ary, but  the  work  of  conversion  was  superficial. 
It  needed,  if  it  were  to  be  effectual,  a  system- 
atic supervision  and  instruction  of  the  con- 
verts, and  there  were  none  to  give  it.  Within 
the  convents  which  were  quickly  established 
there  was  a  sheltered  life  of  singular  purity 
and  devotion.  The  Venerable  Bede,  to  whom 
we  owe  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
People  of  the  English,  sl  masterpiece  of  primi- 
tive history  such  as  no  other  nation  in  Europe 
can  boast,  and  who  was  also  through  many 
laborious  compilations  the  instructor  in  all 
its  sciences  of  the  early  middle  ages,  shows 
this  early  Church  at  its  best.  But  outside 
the  convent  there  was  little  provision  of 
Christian  teaching.     From  the  cathedral  men- 


12     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

asteries  the  bishops  and  their  clergy  made 
tours,  more  or  less  comprehensive,  through 
the  dioceses,  and  in  course  of  time  there 
arose,  under  episcopal  government,  a  certain 
number  of  central  churches  which  came  to 
be  called  the  "  Old  Minsters."  To  them  the 
Christians  brought  their  children  to  be 
baptized,  there  the  worship  was  worthily  and 
regularly  performed,  and  priests  might  always 
be  found.  But  such  churches  were  few  and 
far  between,  and  their  clergy  could  not  know 
and  visit  the  people  of  the  isolated  and  self- 
centred  villages  that  sprang  up  in  the  English 
back-woods. 

There  was  obvious  need  for  a  local  clergy, 
and  not  only  was  there  a  need,  from  a  Chris- 
tian point  of  view,  but  the  converts  had  been 
accustomed  while  still  pagan  to  a  local 
priesthood,  and  expected  their  new  religion 
to  provide  it  under  the  changed  conditions. 
Among  all  the  Teutonic  tribes  it  was  the 
custom  that  the  chief  or  lord  should  have  a 
temple  of  his  own  for  his  pagan  worship, 
and  that  it  should  be  occupied  by  a  priest 
of  his  appointment.  At  that  temple  his 
dependents  had  to  worship,  and  to  it  they 
brought  their  customary  offerings.  It  was 
a  source  of  profit  to  the  lord,  who  was  its 
owner  and  the  master  of  the  priest.     But  the 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD      18 

latter  had  normally  a  further  income  on 
which  he  could  depend.  He  had  a  double 
share  in  the  fields  of  the  village  community, 
holding  two  "  yardlands  "  while  the  ordinary 
villager  held  only  one.  He  was  a  husbandman, 
ploughing  and  reaping  like  the  rest,  though 
not  burdened  with  the  task  of  labouring,  as 
they  did,  on  the  lord's  land.  He  was  bound 
by  a  strange  usage  that  prevailed  in  all 
Teutonic  countries,  to  supply  a  bull  and  a  boar 
for  the  service  of  the  village.  With  pagan 
belief  the  pagan  priest  disappeared.  But 
the  acres  were  there,  demanding  a  priest  to 
till  them,  and  the  community  felt  itself  incom- 
plete unless  it  had  its  worship.  However, 
this  provision  could  only  be  enjoyed  on  the 
lord's  terms.  He  had  nominated,  and  he 
continued  to  nominate,  the  priest.  The 
church,  according  to  the  theory  of  English 
law,  was  his  freehold  down  to  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  for  some  time  after  the  Norman 
Conquest  he  continued  to  regard  it  as  a 
source  of  profit.  The  chapter  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  who  had  been  endowed  with 
many  London  churches  by  benefactors,  used 
in  the  twelfth  century  to  lease  them  out, 
either  to  a  priest  or  to  a  lay  person  who 
employed  a  priest  to  conduct  the  services, 
at    a    rental    which    might    on    the    average 


U     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

amount,  in  modern  values,  to  £100  a  year. 
As  for  the  bull  and  the  boar,  they  were  still 
provided  in  the  eighteenth  century  by  the 
rectors  of  hundreds  of  English  parishes. 

Thus  the  Christian  priest  stepped  into  the 
place  of  his  pagan  predecessor.  The  lord 
named  him,  the  bishop  ordained  him.  But 
for  generations  the  bishop  did  nothing  more. 
He  was  not  one  of  the  bishop's  staff ;  he 
was  not,  and  could  not  be  in  his  lonely  position 
in  a  roadless  land,  kept  under  supervision. 
There  were  no  rural  deans  and  few  arch- 
deacons before  the  Norman  Conquest,  and 
bishops  kept  no  registers  of  their  proceedings 
till  the  thirteenth  century.  They  had  little 
means  of  knowing  who  were  the  parish  clergy, 
and  there  is  small  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
regarded  it  as  their  duty  to  know. 

But,  such  as  it  was,  this  provision  of  local 
clergy  satisfied  the  people  and  was  steadily 
augmented.  Till  after  the  Norman  Conquest 
the  number  grew  as  village  after  village  was 
formed  ;  there  are  counties,  such  as  Norfolk 
and  Dorset,  where  parishes,  each  with  its 
priest,  were  more  numerous  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury than  they  are  to-day.  For  each  little 
community  felt  that  it  was  incomplete 
without  its  priest ;  he  was  as  necessary  to 
its  corporate  life  as  the  miller  or  the  smith. 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      15 

In  fact,  the  density  of  our  early  population 
may  be  measured  by  the  number  of  parishes. 
As  we  travel  north  and  west  we  find  them 
increasing  in  acreage.  Moor  and  fen  and 
forest  will  account  in  part  for  the  sparsity  ; 
but  we  may  probably  assume  that  great 
parishes  like  Leeds  and  Sheffield,  in  what 
were  Celtic  regions  to  a  comparatively  late 
period,  represent  the  religious  provision  needed 
by  a  small  number  of  English  invaders.  Their 
position  would  be  similar  to  that  of  the 
scattered  Protestants  in  the  west  of  Ireland, 
and  the  older  population  would  satisfy  its 
requirements  in  forgotten  ways,  which  may 
be  represented  by  some  of  the  ancient  chapel- 
ries  within  such  parishes. 

Clergy  were  provided ;  a  congregation 
also  was  provided.  The  church  was  the 
lord's ;  it  was  projDcrty,  and  a  source  of 
income.  As  it  was  his,  the  duty  of  attending 
it,  and  so  augmenting  its  receipts,  was  incum- 
bent upon  his  men  and  their  families.  But 
how  were  the  duties  of  the  priest  fulfilled  ? 
We  must  bear  in  mind  that  primarily  his 
task  was  not  to  teach  or  to  influence,  but  to 
do  for  his  people  what  they  could  not  do  for 
themselves.  He  administered  the  sacraments, 
and  often  he  stumbled  with  difficulty  through 
the  Latin  words.     There  is  even  evidence  of 


16     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

priests  who  repeated  the  sounds  without 
knowing  their  meaning.  There  is  evidence 
also  that  many  priests  in  their  daily  life 
were  on  the  level  of  the  little  farmers  by 
whose  side  they  worked  on  the  land ;  that 
there  was  grossness  and  drunkenness.  But 
among  priests  and  people  there  was  a  deep 
and  undoubting  conviction,  darkened  by 
much  fear,  of  the  truths  of  their  religion ; 
and  it  was  not  the  less  sincere  that  it  was 
mingled  with  incongruous  elements  of  the 
older  religion  and  that  primitive  passions  were 
stubborn.  At  its  best,  as  seen  in  some  of  the 
numerous  homilies  written  to  be  delivered 
by  the  unlearned  clergy  that  have  survived, 
the  faith  of  our  ancestors  was  simple  and 
evangelical,  and  bore  good  fruit  in  life. 

The  basis  of  the  system  was  the  village 
community  and  its  priest.  He  was  dependent, 
as  we  have  seen,  upon  the  lord  and  independent 
of  the  bishop.  One  of  the  most  important 
lines  of  development  in  the  history  of  our 
Church  has  been  that  by  which  the  priest 
has  gained  independence  and  stability  as 
against  the  lord,  who  has  dwindled  into  the 
"  patron,"  while  he  has  in  great  measure 
retained  his  independence  of  the  bishop. 
The  "  parson's  freehold "  goes  far  back 
towards    the    beginning    of    English    Chris- 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      17 

tianity.  But  the  authority  of  the  bishop, 
if  it  extends  to-day,  with  limitations,  over  all 
the  working  clergy,  is  confined  in  other 
respects  within  narrower  bounds  than  in 
the  early  times. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  first  mission- 
aries came  as  bearers  not  only  of  the  Gospel 
but  of  a  new  civilization.  Their  counsel  was 
desired  in  all  matters  of  importance.  The 
English  of  the  sixth  century  were  about  at 
the  same  stage  of  development  as  the  most 
intelligent  African  tribes  of  to-day,  and  they 
were  eager  to  advance,  and  to  advance  by 
imitation.  Under  Christian  influence  they  first 
framed  codes  of  law,  or  rather  of  custom. 
Life  and  death  and  the  sanctity  of  marriage 
were  among  the  issues  at  stake,  and  the 
heads  of  the  Church  must  needs  desire  to 
make  their  influence  felt.  They  were  ready 
to  give  their  counsel,  and  ready  (as  mission- 
aries in  many  lands  and  of  many  communions 
have  been  in  recent  times)  to  accept  such  a 
position  as  should  give  them  place  and 
weight  in  public  affairs.  That  place  could 
only  be  held  by  the  bishop  ;  his  monks  were 
under  vows  of  obedience  to  him,  while  he 
was  free.  So  the  bishops  received  great 
grants  of  land,  and  the  second  place,  each 
in  the  kingdom  to  which  his  see  belonged, 
t 


18     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

next  after  the  king.  There  was  a  religious  side 
to  all  administrative  work,  and  so  they 
assisted  in  the  general  affairs  of  government 
and  claimed  that  in  return  government 
should  concern  itself  with  the  affairs  of  the 
Church.  The  national  assembly  was  the  place 
of  decision  for  business  of  both  kinds,  and 
kings  and  their  wise  men  were  apt  to  be 
conspicuous  even  in  ecclesiastical  councils. 
The  age,  in  fact,  was  too  primitive  to  draw 
the  fine  distinction  between  Church  and  State. 
In  the  earliest  days  the  results  were  good  ; 
justice  and  mercy  were  more  likely  to  prevail 
when  the  bishops  made  their  voices  heard 
than  when  lay  passions  were  uncontrolled. 
But  later,  when  kingdoms  grew  few  and 
finally  but  one  remained,  the  relative  import- 
ance of  the  bishop  declined,  and  he  tended 
to  become  almost  a  minister  of  state  ;  once 
at  least  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  bishops 
are  bluntly  classed  among  the  "  king's 
thegns."  Even  the  reformers  among  them, 
who  did  much  to  revive  the  monastic  life, 
and  to  make  the  English  cloisters  a  pattern  of 
piety  and  learning  for  the  west  of  Europe, 
were  powerless  to  govern  the  parish  clergy. 
In  fact,  they  made  no  such  attempt.  On 
their  great  estates  they  did  not  keep  control 
of  church  life,  but  allowed  the  same  system 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      19 

of  an  independent  parochial  ministry  to  grow 
up  as  on  the  estates  of  laymen.  They  had 
no  other  security  for  its  efficiency  than  their 
own  right  of  appointment.  Even  the  original 
centres  from  which  their  staff  had  worked, 
the  "  Old  Minsters,"  were  abandoned,  and 
became  ordinary  parochial  churches  in  the 
bishop's  patronage. 

The  parish  and  the  diocese  were  weak 
points  in  the  system,  but  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  efficiency  of  administration  is  the 
modern  rediscovery  of  an  art  which  was  lost 
w^th  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  that 
throughout  the  middle  ages  government, 
except  for  strenuous  intervals,  was  weak. 
Nor  was  the  higher  control  of  the  Church 
effective.  Gregory  the  Great,  when  he  sent 
his  monks  to  convert  England,  was  quite 
in  the  dark  as  to  the  local  conditions.  He 
knew  from  books  that  when  the  greater  part 
of  Britain  was  under  Roman  rule  London 
and  York  were  its  chief  cities.  His  plan 
was  that  each  of  the  two  was  to  be  the  seat 
of  an  archbishop  with  twelve  suffragans.  These 
two  provinces  were  to  be  co-ordinate  and 
independent,  the  senior  archbishop  for  the 
time  being  taking  precedence,  and  they  with 
their  bishops  were  to  take  counsel  together 
from  time  to  time.     In  597  all  Celtic  Britain 


20     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

was  Christian,  and  it  does  not  appear  on 
what  terms  Gregory  expected  it  and  its 
bishops  to  fall  in  with  his  scheme.  Those 
who  were  nearest  to  Canterbury,  the  Welsh, 
would  not ;  and  York  was  long  unable  to 
extend  its  influence  northward,  and  never 
succeeded  in  effectively  controlling  the  bishops 
of  what  was  afterwards  the  one  kingdom  of 
Scotland.  As  yet  there  was  no  sign  that 
the  island  was  to  be  divided  between  two, 
and  only  two,  kingdoms,  or  that  the  divisions 
would  be  in  a  true  sense  national.  But  of 
slighter,  though  effective,  divisions  there  were 
so  many,  both  in  the  north  and  in  the  south, 
that  the  first  six  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
failed  to  establish  any  provincial  system  at 
all.  Missionaries  came  from  various  quarters, 
Birinus  to  Wessex  from  North  Italy,  Felix 
from  Burgundy  to  East  Anglia  ;  most  notable 
of  all  St.  Aidan  and  his  colleagues  from  lona 
to  the  north  of  England,  whence  their  influ- 
ence and  that  of  their  English  disciples,  such 
as  St.  Chad,  spread  over  the  Midlands.  There 
was  no  unity  ;  even  the  workers  from  the 
Continent  came  independently,  without  asking 
the  consent  or  receiving  the  aid  of  the  suc- 
cessors of  St.  Augustine.  The  evangelists 
from  the  north  were  out  of  communion  with 
the   rest,    ostensibly   on   points   of   practice, 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      21 

such  as  the  date  of  Easter,  really  on  the  point 
of  authority.  They,  like  the  Welsh,  refused  to 
allow  that  the  newcomers  had  any  right,  on 
the  ground  of  their  commission  from  Rome,  to 
exercise  authority  over  the  British  Churches. 

There  was,  then,  in  practice  no  officer 
superior  to  the  tribal  bishop  ;  and  in  the 
Celtic  missions  the  bishop  himself  was,  at 
least  in  theory,  subordinate  to  the  Abbot  of 
lona.  This  want  of  system  was  remedied 
by  the  great  Archbishop  Theodore  of  Tarsus 
(667-690).  He  came  with  the  glamour  of 
a  direct  commission  from  Rome,  and  his  native 
land  was  one  where  full  episcopal  rule  of  the 
normal  type  prevailed  as  in  the  great  days 
of  St.  Athanasius  and  St.  Chrysostom.  He 
determined  that  he  would  not  hold  an  empty 
office ;  he  would  be  a  real  metropolitan. 
He  started  with  a  great  advantage.  The 
Northern  English  had  just  decided  at  the 
Council  of  Whitby,  in  664,  that  they  would 
give  up  their  Celtic  peculiarities  of  observance. 
By  so  deciding  they  practically  put  themselves 
under  Canterbury,  for  York,  as  an  archbishop- 
ric, had  had  a  brief  life  of  five  years  (628-633) 
ending  in  disaster,  and  when  Northumbrian 
Christianity  had  revived  it  it  had  been  after 
the  Celtic  pattern,  which  recked  little  of 
ecclesiastical  order.  York  for  the  next  seventy 


22     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

years  was  merely  a  bishopric,  and  as  such 
attracted  Theodore's  attention.  In  his  home, 
as  everywhere  where  the  canonical  discipline 
had  gro\\Ti  up  after  the  pattern  of  Roman 
Imperial  government,  the  bishop  towards 
his  clergy  was  in  the  position  of  the  prefect 
in  a  French  department  towards  his  officials. 
He  was  their  master,  and  they  had  few  rights 
as  against  him.  Theodore  evidently  wished 
to  make  episcopal  control  real  in  England, 
and  to  this  end  he  set  to  work  to  reduce 
the  size  of  the  bishoprics.  Among  those 
which  he  divided  was  York.  Wilfrid  of 
York  had  been  the  leader  on  the  side  of 
Roman  observance  at  Whitby.  He  felt  that 
he  was  wronged,  and  he  was  not  the  man 
to  submit.  He  appealed,  confident  of  success, 
to  Rome.  The  Pope,  he  was  sure,  would  not 
allow  the  champion  of  Roman  worship  to  be 
robbed  of  two-thirds  of  his  diocese.  Wilfrid 
had  no  sci-uples  over  its  extent,  and,  in  fact, 
dioceses  wide  in  area  were  as  primitive  in 
certain  regions  as  small  ones  in  others.  There 
was  a  famous  Syrian  bishop  of  the  fifth 
century  who  had  eight  hundred  parishes  in  his, 
Wilfrid  may  also  have  realized,  what  was  the 
truth,  that  it  was  Utopian  to  dream  of 
episcopal  control  over  parish  priests  who  were 
subordinate  to  their  lords  and  independent  of 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      23 

the  bishop.  In  any  case,  Rome  supported 
Wilfrid  against  Canterbury,  but  quite  in  vain. 
The  EngUsh  kings  were  on  Theodore's  side, 
and  Wilfrid,  after  long  struggles  and  exiles, 
in  one  of  which  he  converted  the  last  pagans 
in  England,  those  of  Sussex  and  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  had  finally  to  submit  to  a  humiliating 
compromise.  Theodore  had  his  way.  He 
also  succeeded  for  a  moment  in  establishing  a 
true  union  of  the  English  Church,  in  the  form 
of  councils  to  be  held  annually.  But  this 
was  in  advance  of  his  time  and  quickly  broke 
down  ;  Avhile  he  failed  in  his  advocacy  of  a 
scheme,  for  which  England  even  now  is  not 
ripe,  that  the  number  of  bishoprics  should 
increase  regularly  with  the  number  of  Chris- 
tians. Neither  kings  nor  bishops  nor  the 
English  at  large  wished  for  the  bureaucratic 
episcopacy  of  the  Roman  Empire.  This 
purpose  of  a  united  Church  was  finally 
thwarted  when  in  735  the  Northumbrians 
raised  the  bishopric  of  York  to  an  archbishop- 
ric, with  a  province  of  its  own.  Since  then, 
save  on  rare  and  irregular  occasions,  as  when 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  as  Papal  legate,  presided 
over  a  council  of  both  provinces,  there  has 
been  no  attempt  to  bring  all  England  together 
for  Church  purposes  till  the  creation  in  1904 
of    the    "  Representative    Church    Council," 


24     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

which  has  no  legislative  powers.  The  mischief 
of  duality  has  been  mitigated  by  the  com- 
parative unimportance  of  the  York  Convoca- 
tion, which  has  never  taken  a  line  of  its  own 
in  opposition  to  Canterbury. 

Canterbury  was  the  child  of  Rome.  St. 
Augustine  had  been  sent  from  Rome  to  found 
the  English  Church,  and  though  he  was 
allowed  a  free  hand,  neither  Gregory  nor  he 
forgot  the  relation  between  them.  Nor  could 
English  Christians  forget  the  reverence  uni- 
versally paid  to  Rome.  As  yet  the  two 
Apostles,  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  shared  the 
honour  that  was  paid  to  their  place  of 
martyrdom,  but  ecclesiastical  policy  was 
already  beginning  to  be  fortified  by  theo- 
logical considerations  which  augmented  the 
regard  for  St.  Peter  at  the  cost  of  his  brother 
Apostle.  Rome  was  not  only  the  greatest 
Church  in  Christendom,  but  also  the  model 
Church  ;  as  yet  those  lapses  which  were  to 
tarnish  its  renown  were  in  the  future.  The 
bishops  of  Rome  made  the  most  of  a  position 
and  an  authority  which  they  were  conscious  of 
using  for  the  general  benefit.  Their  relation 
to  smaller  Churches  was  primarily  like  that 
of  some  great  physician  from  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's who  may  visit  a  cottage  hospital. 
The  words  of  such  a  dignitary  must  be  received 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      25 

with  respect,  whether  they  be  of  praise  or 
reproof.  Then  there  grew  up  a  system  of 
ecclesiastical  order,  with  the  bishop  of  Rome 
at  the  head  of  the  hierarchy,  and  as  both  he 
and  the  other  bishops  were  concerned  w4th 
religious  matters,  this  hierarchical  arrange- 
men  came  to  be  itself  regarded  as  having 
a  religious  sanction.  Then  came  theological 
explanation  of  the  observed  facts.  Just  as 
the  astronomers  of  those  ages  were  quite 
right  in  their  observations  of  the  stars,  but 
erred  in  the  hypotheses  they  framed  to  account 
for  the  facts,  so  it  was  with  the  theologians. 
They  worked  out  their  hypothesis  to  account 
for  the  Pope's  position  in  Christendom,  and 
have  ended  by  putting  it  into  their  creed. 
The  earlier  among  them  laboured  under  the 
difficulty  of  grasping  so  abstract  an  idea  as  a 
Church  or  a  corporation  with  continuous 
succession.  They  could  only  put  their  case 
in  a  personal  form.  When  the  Roman  Church 
appealed  to  some  secular  potentate  for  help 
it  made  St.  Peter  write  in  his  own  name. 
It  was  not  a  mere  rhetorical  artifice  ;  their 
mental  outlook  was  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Domesday  clerks  who  recorded  that  St.  Paul 
(meaning  the  chapter  of  St.  Paul's)  was 
unjustly  occupying  some  lands  in  Essex. 
This  naive  personification  was  very  impressive, 


26      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

and  did  much  to  enhance  the  reverence  for 
the  Roman  see.  Though  the  theological 
process  was  still  incomplete  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times,  the  reverence,  though  vague,  was 
intense,  and  not  the  less  because  contact  was 
but  intermittent.  Roman  bishops  took  little 
thought  for  a  Church  concerning  which  they 
had  small  opportunity  of  making  their  will 
effectual,  or  even  of  making  it  knoAvn,  and 
wisely  abstained  from  counsels  that  were 
likely  to  be  ignored.  And  there  were  intervals 
when  Rome  was  in  a  discreditable  state,  and 
when  it  was  well  that  few  pilgrims  should  learn 
and  repeat  the  truth  about  papal  escapades. 
So  Rome  was  respected  in  an  indefinite 
way,  and  subsidized  by  handsome  gifts  from 
time  to  time  and  by  an  annual  payment, 
from  the  eighth  century  onwards,  of  "  Peter's 
Pence,"  which  Rome  came  to  regard  as  a 
tribute  and  an  evidence  of  England's  depend- 
ence. 

The  great  Archbishop  Theodore  not  only 
introduced,  so  far  as  he  could,  ecclesiastical 
order  ;  he  also  introduced  Roman  civilization. 
Wilfrid  also  was  active  in  the  same  cause. 
The  schools  of  Canterbury  and  York,  the 
latter  itself  a  child  of  Bede's  school  at  Jarrow, 
first  acquired  the  full  wisdom  of  the  age  and 
then  handed  it  on  to  the  Continent  as  well  as 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      27 

to  Britain.  English  scholarship  did  service 
to  the  future  by  the  art  of  copying,  and  so 
preserving,  ancient  documents,  an  art  that 
has  never  reached  higher  levels  than  in  some 
English  MSS.,  notably  the  Codex  Amiatinus 
of  the  Bible  now  preserved  at  Florence,  the 
noblest  though  not  the  most  ornate  of  Latin 
manuscripts.  English  scholars  also  popular- 
ized the  knowledge  of  the  age,  scientific, 
literary,  historical,  as  well  as  theological, 
and  diffused  it  through  Western  Europe. 
The  greatest  of  all  was  Alcuin,  the  master  of 
schools  for  Charles  the  Great.  Englishmen 
also  in  the  same  period,  the  century  or  there- 
abouts that  followed  the  death  of  Theodore 
in  690,  did  imperishable  service  in  the  con- 
version of  Western  Germany  by  Boniface  and 
Willehad,  the  first  from  Devonshire,  the  second 
from  Northumbria.  Boniface  was  the  greater, 
for  his  converts  were  voluntary  and  he 
suffered  martyrdom  (755) ;  Willehad  preached 
to  Saxons  who  were  forced  to  listen  and  to 
accept  baptism  by  their  conqueror,  Charles 
the  Great.  The  great  sees  of  Mainz  and 
Bremen  owe  their  origin  to  these  Englishmen, 
and  many  of  their  countrymen  shared  their 
labours. 

This  second  exertion  of  Roman  influence 
carried  the  work  of  St.  Augustine  to  a  higher 


28      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

level  than  the  English  Church  could  maintain. 
There  was  from  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century  a  steady  decline,  chiefly  due,  no 
doubt,  to  the  absence  of  any  supervision  that 
might  keep  the  English  up  to  the  mark. 
They  were  mentally  in  the  schoolboy  stage, 
and  there  was  no  master  for  them.  Rome 
itself,  even  Rome  at  its  best,  was  sinking  into 
the  same  mental  state,  and  neither  Rome  nor 
any  other  agency  was  systematically  control- 
ling them.  The  Church  became  more  secular 
and  the  monasteries  more  self-centred.  Nor 
had  the  influence  of  the  great  mission  from 
lona  been  lasting.  It  would  be  unjust 
not  to  value  very  highly  the  saintliness  and 
zeal  of  its  leaders  ;  but  its  working  had  been 
intensive  rather  than  diffusive,  at  least  on 
English  soil,  and  within  the  lifetime  of  Bede, 
who  died  in  735,  there  was  a  deep  decline. 
While  the  Church  was  thus  in  a  falling  state, 
as  Christians  of  Africa  might  be  to-day  if 
European  supervision  were  withdrawn,  there 
fell  upon  England  the  last  great  outburst  of --- 
pagan  savagery.  The  Scandinavian  Vikings 
first  attacked  England  in  793.  The  old  civili- 
zation, such  as  it  was,  perished.  The  monas-^^ 
teries  were  destroyed  or  deserted,  the  clergy 
became  illiterate,  bishops  became  leaders  in 
battle  and  allowed  themselves  the  liberties 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      29 

of  the  soldier.  The  noble  efforts  of  King 
Alfred  to  restore  learning  and  create  a  vernacu- 
lar literature  had  a  certain  success,  but  from 
this  time  forth  the  utmost  that  was  done  was 
to  recover  some  of  the  lost  ground.  We 
cannot  regard  the  later  Anglo-Saxon  period 
as  one  of  progress  in  Church  or  State. 

The  revival,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  confined 
to  the  monasteries  and  the  monastic  cathe- 
drals. Of  the  latter  many  during  the  genera- 
tions of  disorder  had  abandoned  any  pretence 
of  monastic  order.  Their  clergy  lived  as 
canons  (the  word  first  appears  in  England  in 
787) ;  i,e.,  clergy,  not  under  vows,  who  lived 
together  voluntarily  under  a  certain  degree 
of  discipline.  This  discipline  was  very  loose, 
and  it  became  common  for  the  canons  to 
occupy  houses  of  their  own  and  to  take  wives, 
though  the  foundations  that  supported  them 
had  been  endowed  for  the  maintenance  of 
monks.  In  the  tenth  century  there  came 
a  revival  of  the  Benedictine  ideal ;  English 
enthusiasts  entered  French  or  Flemish  monas- 
teries to  learn  the  practice  of  the  rule,  and 
returned  to  establish  it  in  English  houses. 
Bishops  and  kings  were  among  the  supporters 
of  the  movement ;  among  them  was  not  St. 
Dunstan,  who,  rigorous  monk  as  he  was,  did 
not  disturb  the  canons  who  in  his  day  were  in 


30     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

possession  of  his  cathedral  at  Canterbury. 
It  was  not  till  after  his  day  that  Canterbury 
became  once  more  monastic  ;  and  some  of 
the  greatest  cathedrals,  such  as  York  and 
St.  Paul's,  were  never  restored  to  monasticism. 
Of  the  monasteries  that  were  not  cathedral 
few,  if  any,  have  a  continuous  monastic  life 
stretching  beyond  the  Danish  invasions. 
Even  the  greatest,  such  as  Glastonbury, 
had  passed  through  a  phase  in  which  they 
had  been  mere  colonies  of  secular  clergy, 
living  more  or  less  canonically.  But  the 
revival,  when  it  came — and  it  came  too  late 
to  save  many  of  the  ancient  foundations  from 
falling  into  lay  hands  and  so  perishing — 
was  a  real  one,  the  final  glory  of  Anglo-Saxon 
Christianity.  Of  monastic  life  for  women 
we  know  little.  Houses  for  them  were 
comparatively  few  ;  their  inmates  were  hon- 
oured, and  they  were  often  governed  by 
ladies  of  royal  blood. 

The  century  before  the  Norman  Conquest 
was  one  of  increasing  secularity.  Disaster 
under  Ethelred  the  Unready  and  foreign 
domination  under  Cnut  and  his  sons  demoral- 
ized the  England  over  which  Edward  the 
Confessor  weakly  ruled.  If  the  Church  had 
the  honour  of  a  martyr  in  St.  Alphage,  slain 
by  the  heathen  Danes  in  1112,  it  was  sadly  in 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      31 

need  of  reform,  and  not  least  at  the  head. 
There  came  to  be  more  and  more  of  secularity 
among  the  bishops.  For  the  bishops  were 
in  practice  selected  by  the  sovereign,  whether 
with  or  without  the  assent  of  his  wise  men, 
and  with  or  without  the  form  of  an  election 
by  the  clergy.  These  restrictions  upon  the 
king's  liberty  of  choice,  which  even  in  the 
earlier  times  may  not  have  had  much  reality, 
tended  in  the  later  to  disappear.  For  the 
bishop  held  so  important,  and,  it  must  be 
added,  so  wealthy,  an  office  that  the  king 
could  not  well  allow  freedom  of  choice.  And 
if  the  bishop  was  a  counsellor,  and  often  a 
minister,  of  state,  still  more  was  the  arch- 
bishop. Canterbury  and  York  were  thrones 
whose  occupants  could  not  be  chosen  on 
purely  religious  grounds  ;  it  is  but  justice 
to  say  that  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
they  were  given  for  purely  non-religious 
reasons. 

We  find  then,  at  the  end  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period  a  Church  in  grave  need  of  reform. 
Its  heads,  the  bishops,  were  national  or  at 
least  local  leaders  quite  as  much  as  they  were 
ecclesiastics ;  in  its  monasteries,  probably 
its  most  satisfactory  element,  were  living 
monks  and  nuns  whose  lives  were  serious 
and    their    employments     worthy     of    their 


32     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

calling,  though  there  was  not  the  enthusiasm 
among  them  nor  the  new  efficiency  and 
scholarship  that  had  recently  been  kindled 
on  the  Continent.  Its  parish  clergy  had 
certainly  ceased  to  be  as  dependent  on  their 
lord  as  they  had  been  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Conversion,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
that  any  preliminary  training  was  thought 
needful  before  they  were  ordained,  or  that 
they  were  expected,  by  the  bishop  or  any 
one  else,  to  differ  in  mode  of  life  from  their 
brother-farmers.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
they  were  usually  married  ;  so  were  many 
canons  and  some  bishops.  But  in  one  respect 
their  status  had  certainly  risen  ;  they  had 
come  to  be  in  many  cases  recipients  of  tithe, 
and  thus  their  social  position,  especially  in 
regard  to  their  lord,  had  been  improved. 
Tithe  is  the  last  topic  with  which  this 
chapter  need  deal.  It  is  widely,  and  quite 
wrongly,  regarded  as  a  source  of  income  that 
was  devised  for  the  benefit  of  the  local  clergy, 
and  has  often  been  unjustly  withdrawn  from 
them.  Historically,  this  is  untrue.  Tithe- 
paying  to  the  clergy  was  first  inculcated  in 
the  fourth  century,  after  the  idea  became 
prevalent  that  the  three  orders  of  the  Christian 
ministry  correspond  to  the  three  of  the  Jewish. 
From  this  piece  of  exegesis  it  was  inferred 


THE   ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      38 

that  the  Christian  clergy,  like  the  Jewish  of 
old,  has  a  right  to  tithe.  It  was  a  moral 
duty  to  pay  tithe  of  all  gain,  even  of  plunder 
taken  in  war  ;  Abraham  had  set  an  example 
here.  But  the  poor  also  had  obvious  claim 
upon  funds  that  were  given  as  a  matter  of 
religious  duty  ;  and  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
where  each  diocese  was  centralized  under  a 
bishop,  he  was  the  natural  trustee  for  sums 
contributed  to  either  purpose.  In  the  empire 
of  the  Franks,  which  succeeded  the  Roman, 
religious  pressure  became  more  and  more 
emphatic,  but  still  the  obligation  long  re- 
mained a  moral  one.  But  tithe  came  to  mean 
more  precisely  tithe  upon  land  when  Frankish 
kings  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries 
formed  the  habit  of  granting  a  tenth  of  the 
produce  of  parts  of  their  dominions  to  bishops 
and  religious  houses.  One  of  the  chief  sources 
of  State  revenue  under  the  Roman  Empire 
and  its  Frankish  successor  had  been  this  tax 
of  a  tenth,  and  now  in  places  it  fell  to  the 
Church,  or  rather  to  particular  churches. 
Then,  in  765,  a  general  law  was  made  by 
Pepin  the  Short,  a  Frankish  king,  that  this 
whole  tax  should  in  future  be  an  ecclesiastical 
revenue.  This  was  in  recompense  for  a 
wholesale  seizure  of  Church  lands  which  his 
father    had    perpetrated.     From    this    time 


U     THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

onward  tithe  of  the  produce  of  land  dwarfed 
all  other  tithe  in  importance,  and  practically 
tithe  came  to  mean  the  tithe  on  land. 

The  little  English  kingdoms  looked  to  the 
great  Frankish  dominion  as  their  model, 
and  tithe  soon  became  law  in  England. 
At  a  national  council,  held  under  the  presi- 
dency of  a  Papal  legate  in  787,  it  was  ordered 
that  all  were  to  pay  tithe,  and  this  was  made 
compulsory  by  the  sanction  given  by  the 
three  chief  English  kings,  those  of  Mercia, 
Wessex,  and  Northumbria.  This  was  a  general 
obligation,  without  specific  reference  to  land, 
and  Anglo-Saxon  administration  was  so  weak 
that  it  certainly  could  not  be  systematically 
enforced.  The  law  was  made  definite  under 
Athelstan,  who  ordered  that  tithe  should  be 
paid  from  land,  and  appointed  the  recipients. 
Two -thirds  were  to  go  to  the  "  Old  Minster," 
i.e.,  to  the  bishop's  general  fund.  He  was 
master  of  the  "  Old  Minsters,"  and  their 
clergy  were  under  him.  One-third  was  to  go 
to  the  private  church,  if  there  were  one.  If 
there  were  not,  the  whole  was  to  go  to  the 
"  Old  Minster."  This  scheme  soon  broke 
down.  The  bishops  abandoned  the  personal 
supervision  of  their  dioceses  exercised  through 
the  clergy  of  the  "  Old  Minsters,"  which 
simply  became  parish  churches,  and  so  had 


THE    ANGLO-SAXON    PERIOD      35 

small  claim  to  tithe  from  lords  and  people 
for  whom  they  did  nothing.  Thus  the  land- 
owners ceased  to  support  these  "  Old  Mins- 
ters "  with  their  tithe,  except  those  who, 
with  their  people,  still  attended  at  them. 
The  others  in  many  cases  paid  their  whole 
tithe  to  their  local  priest ;  not  only  did  this 
seem  a  just  retm-n  for  his  services,  but  it  was 
in  the  interest  of  the  lord.  It  increased  the 
value  of  the  office  to  which  he  appointed. 
Nor  did  the  bishops  resent  it.  They  had 
ample  revenues  of  their  own  to  maintain 
themselves  and  their  central  cathedral  staff, 
and  they  were  no  longer  interested  in  the 
"  Old  Minsters."  But  the  lords  were  not 
obliged  to  confer  this  favour  on  their  own 
priests,  and  many,  especially  among  the 
smaller,  may  have  had  no  priest.  Thus  their 
tithe  was  at  their  own  disposal.  They  must 
pay  it,  but  they  might  pay  it  to  whom  they 
would.  About  the  time  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  much  tithe  was  free  in  this  way. 
But  by  the  thirteenth  century  the  idea  had 
become  prevalent  that  a  tithe-payer  who  was 
not  pledged  to  some  other  recipient  was 
bound  to  give  his  tithe  to  the  parish  priest, 
and  this  under  Innocent  III.,  who  died  in 
1216,  became  the  general  law  of  Western 
Christendom,   in   England   as   elsewhere. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  MEDIEVAL  SYSTEM 

The  Norman  Conquest  of  1066  brought 
England  into  close  contact  with  Europe. 
Our  ancestors  had  suffered  from  isolation ; 
they  had  a  literature  in  their  own  tongue  such 
as  no  other  nation  could  boast,  but  on  the 
religious  side  they  had  little  else.  Not  that 
they  were  below  the  general  level  in  regard 
to  faith  or  life,  but  that  they  had  been  in  a 
back-water,  unaffected  by  modern  currents 
of  progress.  They  were  powerless  to  bring 
their  two  institutions  of  the  private  church 
and  the  episcopate  into  a  working  relation. 
A  solution  of  that  problem  was  already 
being  attempted  on  the  Continent,  and  the 
Norman  Conquest  meant  that  in  England 
the  same  attempt  should  be  made.  It  is 
true  that  in  general  civilization  and  in  its 
religious  state  Normandy  was  in  no  better 
order  than  England.  The  Normans  had  only 
ju-st  begun  to  be  civilized,  and  their  bishops 
and  clergy  were  rude  and  military.     But  their 


THE    MEDIiEVAL    SYSTEM         37 

monasteries  were  in  advance  of  the  age.  No 
higher  examples  of  discipHned  devoutness 
could  be  found  than  in  them,  and  it  was  good 
that  the  impulse  should  be  transmitted  to 
England.  Normans  had  furnished  the  earnest- 
ness, but  not  the  gift  to  turn  it  to  good  account. 
It  was  their  contact  with  the  wider  world  that 
had  brought  Italians,  Lanfranc  and  Anselm, 
to  settle  among  them.  They  did  not  come 
as  aliens,  for  as  yet  the  Roman  imperial 
tradition  of  universal  citizenship  had  not  been 
ousted  by  the  idea  of  nationality.  It  was  the 
coimterpart  of  the  universal  churchmanship 
of  the  age  ;  and,  indeed,  a  great  deal  that 
is  often  called  catholic  might  better  be  styled 
cosmopolitan.  The  Normans  welcomed  such 
messengers  of  a  higher  life,  and  accepted 
their  teaching.  That  teaching,  so  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  was  the  mediaeval  doctrine  of 
Church  and  State. 

European  society  was  feudal  in  its  organisa- 
tion. Everybody  was  somebody's  man,  till 
the  apex  was  reached  where  sat  the  monarch, 
responsible  only  to  God.  We  have  seen 
how  in  the  Teutonic  countries,  such  as 
England,  the  parish  priest  was  the  man  of  his 
lord.  That  relation  had  grown  weaker  as 
time  advanced  and  as  Church  property  had 
come  to  be  regarded  as  more  and  more  sacred. 


88     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

It  was  now  believed  to  belong  to  the  altar, 
and  the  lord,  though  he  had  wide  powers 
of  choice  as  to  the  recipient  to  whom  he 
would  grant  it,  dared  not  use  it,  or  allow  it 
to  be  used,  for  other  than  ecclesiastical 
purposes.  But  the  thought  of  lordship  had 
not  stopped  short  at  the  parochial  clergy. 
Kings,  or  (on  the  Continent)  great  nobles, 
regarded  bishops  as  their  men,  and  held  that 
they  granted  them  the  office  as  well  as  its 
emoluments.  The  essential  thing  was  the 
grant ;  the  consecration  was  its  sequel, 
necessary,  no  doubt,  but  merely  a  consequence. 
At  the  head  of  the  ideal  system  was  the 
Emperor,  who  was  in  practice  master  of 
Germany  and  in  theory — often  it  was  no 
more  than  theory — ^lord  of  Italy  and  Rome. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century  the 
Emperors  had  nominated  several  Popes  in 
succession.  Those  Popes  had  been  well  chosen, 
and  had  worked  a  much-needed  reform  in 
the  Papacy,  the  consequence  of  which  was 
an  increase  in  the  estimate  which  the  world 
and  the  Popes  themselves  had  of  their  office. 
But  England,  unlike  the  Pope,  needed  to 
pay  no  attention  to  the  Emperor's  theoretical 
claims. 

A  strong  and  self-respecting  Papacy  was  a 
benefit  to  the  age.     For  the  feudal  idea  had 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         89 

lowered  the  standard  of  clerical,  and  especially 
of  episcopal,  life  and  work.  In  France  and  in 
Germany,  more  than  in  England,  bishops 
were  men  of  the  rough  world  in  which  they 
lived.  How  were  they  to  be  recalled  to  the 
standard  of  their  profession  ?  Only  by  the 
establishment  of  a  rival  feudal  system,  clerical 
from  top  to  bottom,  with  a  loyalty  of  its  own 
and  a  sense  of  duty  from  inferior  to  superior, 
the  apex  of  the  system  being  the  representa- 
tive of  God  on  earth,  responsible  only  to  Him. 
So  would  the  clergy  be  detached  from  their 
degrading  contact  with  the  world.  But  this 
system  required  that  not  only  the  persons 
but  the  properties  of  the  clergy  should  be 
severed  from  worldly  connection,  and  here  the 
difficulty  began.  For  that  property  was 
secure  only  by  the  protection  of  the  State, 
and  in  return  for  that  protection  the  State 
had  a  claim  upon  its  holders.  It  needed 
financial  support,  and  it  needed  also  the 
counsel  of  the  leaders  of  the  Church.  And  the 
State  put  that  demand  into  a  feudal  form. 
The  heads  of  the  Church  were  "  tenants-in- 
chief,"  holding  lands  directly  from  the  Crown, 
and  putting  them  to  profit  by  granting  them 
out  to  knights  and  others  who  owed  to  their 
clerical  superiors  exactly  the  same  duties 
as  if  those  superiors  had  been  earls  or  barons. 


40     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

And  it  must  be  said  that  many  bishops, 
and  good  men  among  them,  were  quite  as 
much  interested  in  these  secular  duties  and 
their  emoluments  as  in  their  ecclesiastical 
position,  and  quite  as  loyal  to  the  King  as 
to  the  Pope,  to  the  head  of  the  worldly  as  of 
the  churchly  hierarchy.  If  a  conflict  of  duties 
arose,  it  would  inevitably  be  a  sharp  one. 

The  feudal  scheme  of  the  Church  was  in 
some  important  respects  successfully  carried 
through.  This  was  notably  the  case  with  the 
parish  clergy.  They  became  the  bishop's 
men,  in  the  feudal  sense,  and  so  they  have 
continued.  The  promise  of  canonical  obedi- 
ence and  the  act  of  institution  are  thoroughly 
feudal.  So  feudal  was  the  relation  between 
bishop  and  beneficed  clergy  that  it  gave  the 
bishop  the  same  right  of  levying  an  "  aid  " 
from  them  that  a  lay  lord  had  in  regard  to 
those  who  held  under  him.  When  he  had  to 
meet  special  expenses,  such  as  the  payment 
of  fees  to  Rome,  or  the  discharge  of  heavy 
debts,  the  bishop  acted  like  the  knight 
who  was  called  out  to  war  or  had  to  provide 
a  marriage  portion  for  his  eldest  daughter. 
He  passed  on  as  much  of  the  cost  as  he  could 
to  his  subordinates.  This  feudal  right  even 
survived  the  Reformation ;  a  bishop  of 
Lichfield  exercised  it  in  1582.     Thus  in  a  real 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         41 

sense  the  parish  clergy  had  changed  their 
position  ;  they  became  the  men  not  of  the 
lord  who  had  appointed  them,  but  of  the 
bishop.  This  change — a  change  in  opinion 
as  well  as  in  practice — was  effected  soon  after 
the  Norman  Conquest.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, over-estimate  its  importance.  For  a 
lord,  according  to  feudal  principles,  had  no 
arbitrary  rights  over  his  men.  So  long 
as  they  did  their  duty  he  had  to  protect  them  ; 
he  could  not  displace  them  nor  meddle  with 
their  property.  Thus  the  change  actually 
strengthened  the  position  of  the  clergy. 
It  became  even  more  a  "  freehold "  than 
before.  The  lord's  position,  again,  did  not 
deteriorate.  His  right  to  nominate  the  parson 
was  unaffected ;  he  had  to  nominate  him, 
it  is  true,  to  the  bishop,  who  performed  the 
act  of  admission  to  the  benefice,  but  the  bishop 
had,  and  has,  very  narrow  powers  of  objecting 
to  the  patron's  nominee.  The  further,  and 
originally  unlimited,  powers  of  the  lord  had 
lost  all  practical  value  before  they  were  super- 
seded by  the  new  relation  to  the  bishop. 

But  this  new  status  both  of  bishop  and 
patron  had  to  be  justified,  and  it  was  justified 
by  a  legal  fiction  which  historically  was  base- 
less. It  was  asserted  that  parishes  had 
arisen  from  the  delegation  by  the  bishop  of  his 


42     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

pastoral  duty  in  parts  of  his  diocese.  That 
was  true  enough  of  the  towns  around  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  where  the 
churches  had  originally  had  the  bishop  for 
their  one  pastor,  and  the  parishes  had  been 
separated  off  one  by  one.  It  had  never 
been  true  of  Western  Europe,  nor  of  the 
primitive  churches  in  Syria  and  Cappadocia 
from  which  Christianity  had  advanced  to 
the  west  by  way  of  Milan.  But  feudal  thought, 
which  assumed  that  the  relation  between 
lord  and  man  began  in  a  grant  by  the  former, 
was  compelled  to  postulate  such  a  grant  from 
bishop  to  priest.  Equally  unhistorical  was 
the  explanation  given  at  this  stage  of  the 
origin  of  ecclesiastical  patronage.  It  was 
asserted  that,  in  return  for  the  generosity 
of  a  benefactor,  he  and  his  representatives 
were  allowed  by  the  Church  to  present  a 
clerk  to  the  bishop.  As  we  have  seen,  glebe 
was  a  customary  endowment,  far  too  uniform 
in  extent  and  too  prevalent  to  owe  its  origin 
to  individual  acts  of  beneficence,  while 
tithe  was  a  universal  obligation,  though  the 
payer  had  a  wide  choice  as  to  the  recipient. 

Had  the  two  feudal  systems  been  exactly 
parallel  there  would  have  been  a  regular 
gradation  upwards  from  the  bishop  through 
the  archbishop  to  the  Pope.     But  the  Popes, 


THE    MEDIiEVAL    SYSTEM         48 

like  such  kings  as  William  I.,  were  too  master- 
ful for  this.  As  every  Englishman,  whoever 
his  lord  might  be,  was  the  man  of  the  King, 
and  could  not  shelter  himself  in  case  of  dis- 
obedience by  pleading  the  orders  of  his  imme- 
diate lord,  so  the  Popes  insisted  that  every 
bishop  was  immediately  under  themselves. 
They  ignored  the  provincial  system,  so  far 
as  it  might  conflict  with  their  own  universal 
competence.  They  believed  themselves  to 
be,  and  mankind  in  the  best  days  of  the 
mediaeval  system  unhesitatingly  believed  them 
to  be,  the  representatives  of  God  on  earth. 
That  belief,  as  time  went  on,  was  to  be 
shattered  by  facts. 

Before  speaking  of  the  conflict  between  this 
feudal  system  of  the  Church  and  the  rival 
feudalism  of  the  kingdom,  it  will  be  well  to 
speak  of  the  practical  working  of  the  former 
in  regard  to  the  endowments  of  the  Church. 
They  came  to  be  taxed  in  support  of  its 
central  government.  The  Crusades  were  not 
only  stimulated  but  organised  by  the  Popes. 
They  were  costly  campaigns,  which  needed 
a  central  treasury,  and  no  one  but  the  Pope 
was  sufficiently  impartial  and  earnest  to 
administer  it  with  success.  So  the  nations 
of  Europe  accepted  the  burden,  and  grew 
familiar  with  Roman  taxation,  both  of  clergy 


44      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

and  laity.  Soon  Rome  needed  funds  for 
other  military  purposes.  It  aimed  at  main- 
taining and  enlarging  its  own  Italian  domains, 
and  at  weakening  the  Emperors  who,  from 
their  seat  of  power  in  Germany,  were  striving 
to  make  themselves  masters  of  Italy  and  the 
Pope.  It  came  to  be  a  struggle  for  existence, 
for  time  after  time  the  Emperors  in  the 
eleventh  and  following  centuries  set  up  rival 
Popes,  who,  though  never  permanently  suc- 
cessful, often  for  a  while  made  themselves 
masters  of  Rome  and  received  the  allegiance 
of  a  great  part  of  central  Europe.  Hence  the 
legitimate  Popes  were  constantly  engaged  in 
stirring  up  civil  war  in  Germany,  in  order 
to  weaken  the  attack  on  Italy,  and  their 
activity  in  this  respect  ended  in  breaking 
up  German  unity,  which  has  not  yet  been 
completely  restored.  Now  this  great  con- 
tinental struggle  was  necessarily  waged  by 
the  Popes  as  a  religious  warfare.  One  of 
their  weapons  was  excommunication,  and  all 
who  engaged  in,  or  helped  to  pay  for,  the 
conflict  were  told  that  they  w^ere  engaged  in 
a  Crusade  against  the  enemies  of  God  ;  though 
in  fact  it  was  the  distraction  of  this  warfare 
that  ensured  the  failure  of  the  real  Crusades 
in  the  Holy  Land. 

The    Popes    required    that    the    English 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         45 

should  share  the  expense  of  this  European 
Crusade.  They  had  no  great  success  with 
the  laity  ;  international  politics  were  against 
them,  for  English  kings  in  chronic  hostility 
with  France  could  not  wish  to  throw  Germany 
into  the  arms  of  France  by  actively  helping 
the  Pope.  Hence  the  burden  was  chiefly 
thrown  upon  the  clergy,  who  had  to  bear 
also  their  full  share  of  national  taxation. 
But  in  theory,  as  we  have  seen,  the  clergy 
belonged  to  another  feudal  system  than  that 
of  the  laity.  Ought  they,  then,  to  be  taxed 
by  or  with  the  laity,  or  ought  they  to  tax 
themselves  ?  And  ought  they  at  all  to 
subsidise  the  feudal  organism  to  which  they 
did  not  belong  ?  Both  questions  received 
a  final  answer  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  The 
clergy  were  to  tax  themselves  in  their  own 
assembly,  their  Convocation,  which  served 
the  double  purpose  of  voting  taxes  and  trans- 
acting ecclesiastical  business.  But  we  must 
deal  with  Convocation  hereafter.  This  self- 
taxation  had  important  results.  It  led  to 
the  isolation  of  the  clergy  from  Parliament, 
except  in  the  case  of  the  bishops  and  great 
abbots  who  sat  in  the  Upper  House  as  barons. 
The  others,  having  no  concern  with  public 
finance,  one  of  the  most  important  functions 
of  Parliament,  were  able  to  gratify  their  self- 


46     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

consciousness  as  a  separate  and  cosmopolitan 
order  by  staying  away.  There  was  another 
serious  consequence.  Kings  and  Popes  alike 
taxed  not  the  clergy  as  such  but  only  the 
endowed  clergy.  Now  the  clergy,  according 
to  our  modern  ideas,  were  excessively  numer- 
ous, and  the  beneficed  among  them  ^vere  a 
minority.  But  since  only  those  who  had 
tithe  and  glebe  were  taxed,  only  they  voted 
the  taxes  ;  and  as  only  they  were  represented 
in  Convocation,  purely  ecclesiastical  business 
fell  into  their  hands  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
rest  of  the  clergy.  Till  the  Restoration  of 
Charles  II.  the  clergy  continued  to  tax 
themselves  ;  then  the  right  was  abandoned 
by  an  informal  agreement  between  Archbishop 
Sheldon  of  Canterbury  and  Lord  Clarendon, 
and  the  clergy  have  since  then  been  taxed 
with  the  laity.  They  justly  received  the 
vote  for  Parliament,  but  by  a  meaningless 
survival  are  still  excluded  from  sitting  in  it. 
By  another  meaningless  survival  the  unbene- 
ficed clergy  cannot  vote  for  members  of  their 
Convocation,  though  they  can,  if  elected, 
sit  therein.  So  lasting  in  its  effects  has  been 
this  mediaeval  arrangement,  which  also  has 
preserved  the  separate  existence  of  the 
two  English  provinces.  Had  there  not 
been    need     for     a     machinery     of     clerical 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         47 

taxation,  that  of  York  could  scarcely  have 
survived. 

The  endowments  of  the  Church,  then,  paid 
their  share  of  national  taxation  and  also 
contributed  to  Papal  needs.  When  the  claim 
was  made  by  a  Pope  of  more  courage  than 
discretion  that  Church  property  should  be 
free  from  payment  to  the  State,  it  was  sum- 
marily rejected  by  Edward  I.  Archbishop 
Winchelsey  was  a  Papalist.  The  clergy,  he 
said,  have  two  lords,  but  they  owe  more 
obedience  to  the  spiritual  than  the  temporal. 
The  spiritual  had  bidden  them  pay  taxes  only 
to  him.  It  was  sound  feudal  doctrine ; 
the  supreme  lord,  responsible  only  to  God, 
had  spoken  and  must  be  obeyed.  Those 
who  paid  to  the  King  were  excommunicated 
by  the  archbishop,  as  the  Pope's  representa- 
tive. The  King  outlawed  him  and  his  sup- 
porters, seized  their  lands  and  soon  got  his 
way. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  while  the 
mediaeval  system  was  at  its  best,  from  the 
Norman  Conquest  to  the  days  of  Edward  I., 
the  most  respected  part  of  the  clergy  was  the 
monastic.  It  would  be  inaccurate  to  assert, 
as  is  sometimes  done,  that  the  monasteries 
were  corporate  bodies  outside  the  practical 
system   of   the   church.     They   were   not   so 


48     THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

regarded.  The  most  important  monasteries 
were  the  cathedral  bodies  which  had  been 
recovered  for  the  Benedictine  life  in  the 
century  before  the  Conquest.  Their  number 
was  about  equal  to  that  of  the  cathedrals 
in  which  canons,  who  had  in  the  dark  days 
of  Danish  invasion  taken  the  place  of  monks, 
maintained  their  position.  If  York  and 
London  and  Lincoln  had  canons,  Canterbury 
and  Durham  and  Winchester  had  monks. 
The  position  of  the  bishop  was  the  same  in 
both.  They  were  corporate  bodies  of  which 
he  was  the  head,  and  originally  their  members 
had  much  of  the  power  which  a  cathedral 
chapter  or  the  governing  body  of  a  College 
at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  to-day  has  in  relation 
to  its  dean  or  head.  In  a  monastic  cathedral 
the  position  was  paradoxical.  Individually 
the  monks  were  under  obedience,  with  no 
right  to  a  will  of  their  own ;  collectively 
they  were  a  counterpoise  to  the  bishop. 
Where  there  were  canons,  not  under  vows,  the 
case  was  simpler,  but  the  chapter's  influence 
was  not  less  than  that  of  cathedral  monks. 
There  was  a  cathedral  in  North  Germany 
where  the  official  acts  of  the  bishop  were  not 
valid  till  the  chapter's  seal  was  attached 
to  them.  Though  the  bishop's  powers  were 
not  so  limited  in  England,  this  influence  of 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM         49 

the  cathedral  body  was  irksome  to  the  first 
Norman  prelates  in  England,  and  they  brought 
it  to  an  end  by  dissolving  the  partnership. 
St.  Osmund  of  Salisbury  and  Thomas  I. 
of  York,  among  others,  divided  the  estates 
which  hitherto  had  supported  bishop  and 
cathedral  into  two  parts.  The  bishop  uncon- 
trolled disposed  of  the  one,  the  chapter  of 
the  other.  If  they  were  monks,  they  now 
elected  a  cathedral  prior,  who  was  their  actual 
head  ;  if  they  were  canons,  they  elected  a  dean 
to  preside  over  them.  And  the  property  was 
often  divided  in  a  way  that  seems  strange  to 
us.  The  government  of  churches  was  regarded 
as  part  of  it,  and  so  it  came  about  that  many 
cathedrals,  notably  St.  Paul's  and  Salisbury, 
exercised  an  episcopal  authority  over  a 
number  of  parishes  which  was  only  abolished 
in  1836.  In  such  parishes  the  dean,  not  the 
bishop,  instituted  the  incumbents  and,  if 
they  offended,  sat  in  judgment  upon  them. 
It  was  only  for  such  occasional  functions  as 
a  confirmation  that  a  bishop  was  needed, 
and  neither  duty  nor  courtesy  required  that 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese  should  be  called  in. 
With  the  separation  of  properties  began  that 
independent  existence  of  cathedral  chapters 
with  which  we  are  familiar,  though  the  elec- 
tion  of  their   dean   has   passed   from  them. 


50     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

When  Henry  VIII.  abolished  cathedral  mon- 
asteries, like  the  rest,  he  reconstituted  them, 
together  with  the  new  cathedral  bodies  which 
he  created,  as  cathedrals  of  the  "  New  Founda- 
tion "  on  the  same  lines  as  those  of  the  "Old 
Foundation,"  though  with  certain  modifica- 
tions. 

But  this  mutual  separation  was  only  the 
beginning  of  the  cathedral  system,  in  Eng- 
land as  in  other  countries.  The  Norman 
victors  in  England  gave  their  winnings  with 
lavish  generosity  to  all  the  great  churches. 
They  were  as  liberal  in  endowing  existing 
cathedrals  as  in  founding  new  monasteries. 
Salisbury,  for  instance,  obtained  property, 
chiefly  in  the  form  of  churches,  scattered  over 
England  from  Grantham  in  Lincolnshire  to 
Ilfracombe  in  Devon.  It  had  some  fifty 
clergy  who  were  members  of  the  corporate 
body,  and  representatives  of  the  original 
staff  of  the  missionary  bishop.  There  was 
no  diocesan  work  for  them  now,  and  their 
financial  interest  had  largely  ceased  to  be 
local.  The  great  church  existed  for  its  own 
services  and  its  own  staff.  But  these  had  to 
live,  and  it  was  too  hard  a  task  for  a  rudi- 
mentary book-keeping  to  collect  and  divide 
the  total  income  derived  from  many  sources. 
It  was  simpler  to  assign  a  single  source  to 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         51 

each  member,  and  to  distribute  the  remainder 
for  the  supply  of  particular  needs.  This  was 
also  the  procedure  of  the  monasteries  ;  in 
the  greater  ones  separate  estates  were  assigned 
to  the  kitchen,  the  cellar,  the  supply  of  clothing, 
the  lighting  of  the  church,  and  so  forth.  So 
in  the  secular  cathedrals  each  member  of  the 
corporation  received  his  particular  source  of 
income,  his  prebend,  of  which  he  was  preb- 
endary— prebendary  of  Ilfracombe,  for  in- 
stance. If  it  were  a  church,  he  took  the  tithe. 
Why  should  he  not  ?  He  was  in  orders, 
and  tithe  was  regarded  as  a  provision  for 
priests  and  levites.  The  conscience  of  the 
payer  was  acquitted  if  a  person  in  orders 
received  it,  even  though  that  person  did 
nothing  for  those  whose  labours  raised  the 
crops  from  which  the  tithe  was  taken.  But 
in  fact  he  did  something,  for  he  provided,  by 
deputy  if  not  personally,  the  service  in  the 
parish  church.  Normally  it  was  by  deputy, 
for  the  claim  upon  the  prebendary  of  his 
cathedral  was  a  stronger  one  than  that  of  the 
parish.  Soon  the  plan  was  adopted  by  which 
the  "  vicar,"  or  deputy,  took  the  whole  charge 
of  the  parish  in  return  for  a  certain  proportion, 
usually  about  a  third,  of  the  income,  and 
received  security  of  tenure  by  institution. 
Thus    the    prebendary    became    merely    the 


5^     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

patron,  and  was  free  to  contine  his  attention 
to  the  cathedral.  There  his  most  obvious  duty 
was  to  take  part  in  singing  the  services,  and 
the  corporate  body  w^as  large  enough  to  pro- 
vide choir  as  well  as  clergy.  But  the  pre- 
bendaries were  men  of  some  mark  and  energy. 
They  rebelled  against  this  humble  function, 
and  claimed  the  right  to  furnish  vicars  in  the 
cathedral  as  well  as  in  the  parish.  So  minor 
canons  to  take  the  services  and  choirmen  to 
sing  w^ere  appointed,  and  the  prebendaries 
were  free.  Still,  they  felt  that  they  had  a 
duty  to  their  cathedral.  Some  of  the  body 
ought  always  to  be  in  charge.  So  an  inner 
ring  of  residentiaries  was  appointed  by  the 
prebendaries  from  among  themselves,  varying 
in  number  but  usually  about  six,  who  were 
bound  to  "  keep  residence " ;  i.e.  one  at 
least  had  to  be  present  at  each  service.  They 
received  a  further  remuneration  in  addition 
to  their  prebends,  and  in  practice  became  the 
governing  body  of  the  cathedral,  in  the  affairs 
of  which  the  absentee  prebendaries  took  little 
part.  The  residentiaries,  with  the  dean,  are 
now,  since  1836,  the  sole  governing  body,  the 
prebendaries  holding  a  purely  honorary  posi- 
tion. Of  the  old  relation  of  this  chapter 
to  the  bishop  little  remains  save  his  power 
of  visitation,  often  fiercely  contested  in  the 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM!         53 

past  and  forgotten  for  several  centuries, 
though  revived  in  a  few  cases  within  the  last 
forty  years.  This  right  is  merely  one  of 
inquiry  into  the  observance  of  the  statutes, 
and  when  (as  in  modern  times)  they  are  duly 
observed  the  bishop  has  no  more  to  say. 
An  interesting  revival,  rather  than  survival, 
is  the  courteous  desire,  sometimes  expressed 
by  bishops  to-day,  to  consult  their  "  greater 
chapter,"  i.e.,  the  residentiaries  and  prebend- 
aries assembled  together,  on  business  of 
importance. 

But  the  old  monasteries,  including  the 
cathedral  monasteries,  were  few  in  number 
compared  with  the  multitude  of  religious 
houses  that  sprang  up  in  England  after  the 
Conquest.  For  the  most  part  they  were 
endowed  in  a  new  way.  The  great  primitive 
houses,  Bury  St.  Edmund's,  Glastonbury, 
Shaftesbury  and  the  like,  had  received  com- 
pact blocks  of  land  around  their  buildings. 
It  was  no  longer  possible,  now  that  England 
was  more  or  less  settled  and  prosperous,  to 
endow  monasteries  with  dozens  of  square 
miles  in  their  own  vicinity.  Even  Edward  the 
Confessor  had  had  to  find  estates  for  West- 
minster far  away  in  Worcestershire  and 
Gloucestershire.  But  the  founders  after  the 
Conquest    were    usually    more    economical. 


54     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

They  retained  their  land  and  bestowed  the 
churches  upon  it  on  their  foundation.  The 
poorest  little  convent  would  have  at  least 
one  comfortable  benefice,  perhaps  as  its  sole 
source  of  income,  and  larger  houses  would 
count  their  livings  by  the  dozen.  Not  that 
in  the  aggregate,  the  amount  of  land  granted 
to  these  Norman  foundations  was  small, 
but  that  it  formed  a  small  proportion  of 
what  they  needed  for  their  maintenance. 
According  to  the  thought  of  the  age,  they  might 
take  these  churches  and  their  endowments 
without  scruple.  Tithe  was  meant  for  the 
clergy — there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
in  England  any  considerable  portion  of  it 
was  ever  devoted  to  other  purposes — and 
the  monks  were,  as  a  rule,  taking  orders. 
They  had  began  by  being  laymen,  but  amid 
more  serious  motives  which  prompted  them 
to  take  orders  was  the  consideration  that 
otherwise  they  would  be  violating  propriety 
if  they  took  to  their  own  use  a  source  of 
income  that  was  meant  for  the  clergy.  Hence 
finally  in  1311  it  was  ordained  that  they  must 
take  orders,  and  the  only  unordained  monks 
of  full  age  were  humble  and  uneducated  lay- 
brothers.  But  the  possession  of  churches 
by  monks  was  not  only  sanctioned  ;  it  was 
actually  encouraged  by  the  Popes  down  to 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         55 

the  English  Hadrian  IV.,  who  died  in  1159. 
There  was  reason  in  this  preference  for  monks. 
As  yet  the  rude  farming  parish  priest  was 
little  regarded.  His  function  was  to  do  things 
for  his  people  that  they  could  not  do  for 
themselves,  to  provide  indispensable  sacra- 
ments. He  was  not  a  leader  nor  an  influence. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  great  days  of  the 
rise  of  the  religious  orders  the  monks  were 
in  heart  and  soul  devoted  men  ;  the  austerity 
which  was  the  outward  expression  of  their 
spiritual  life  was  justly  reverenced  and 
won  many  recruits  to  their  ranks.  They 
were  leaders  in  holiness  of  life  in  a  gross  and 
barbarous  age,  and  they  became  its  leaders 
in  other  ways  as  well.  But  the  movement 
of  admiration  was  sweeping  revenues  needed 
to  maintain  the  local  clergy  so  swiftly  into 
monastic  channels  that  Hadrian  felt  that  it 
needed  checking.  Monks  (with  some  impor- 
tant exceptions)  were  henceforth  not  to  be 
exempt  from  payments  for  the  maintenance 
of  worship  in  parishes  where  they  owned  lands. 
A  more  important  limitation  was  imposed 
upon  them,  often  after  desperate  struggles  on 
their  part,  when  the  bishops  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  insisted  that  they 
should  appoint  vicars  with  permanent  tenure 
and  a  fixed  share  of  the  income,  instead  of 


56     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

priests  who  were  merely  hired  to  undertake 
the  charge.  The  proportions  were  not  yet 
rigidly  defined  ;  an  incumbent  could  appeal 
to  the  bishop  to  increase  his  share,  as  in 
the  established  Church  of  Scotland  he  can 
appeal  to-day  to  the  courts  of  law.  Such 
appeals  were  apt  to  be  resented,  and  there  is 
a  grim  story,  told  triumphantly  by  the  annalist 
of  Barnwell,  how  a  Cambridgeshire  vicar, 
-vvho  had  dared  to  ask  for  more,  died  while 
the  case  was  undecided,  and  was  refused 
Christian  burial  in  his  own  church,  of  which 
the  patrons  had  taken  possession  during  the 
vacancy,  till  his  executors  paid  a  heavy 
ransom  to  the  offended  house. 

The  regular  clergy  who  occupied  these 
houses  lived  all  in  the  same  methodical  way. 
There  was  little  difference  between  monks, 
Benedictine  (though  few  Benedictine  houses 
of  the  the  old  kind  were  founded  after  the 
Conquest),  Cluniac,  Cistercian,  or  Carthusian 
and  regular  canons,  Austin,  Premonstraten- 
sian  or  Gilbertine.  The  last  was  the  only 
order  confined  to  England,  and  not  great 
either  in  numbers  or  wealth  ;  many  of  its 
houses  were  double,  both  for  men  and  women, 
who  met  only  in  their  church  w^here  they  were 
hidden  from  each  other  by  a  wall  of  partition. 
All  the  orders  had  nuns  who  lived  according 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         ,57 

to  their  rule  and  these  ladies  were  considered 
to  be  so  far  clerical  as  to  be  fit  recipients 
of  tithe.  Yet  nunneries  were  much  less 
numerous  than  monasteries  of  men.  The 
primitive  idea  that  the  monastic  life  was  a 
stern  one,  like  that  of  the  soldier  suffering 
privation  on  active  service,  was  so  prevalent 
in  the  days  when  religious  houses  were  being 
founded  that  it  seemed  less  appropriate  to 
spend  money  on  houses  for  women  than 
for  men.  The  nuns  seem  all  to  have  learned 
enough  Latin  to  say  their  hours  together ; 
for  the  other  services  they  employed  a  staff 
of  clerks,  and  some  of  the  greater  houses 
had  clergy  on  their  foundation  ;  at  Shaftes- 
bury there  were  four  prebendaries.  It  is 
needless  to  say  how  magnificent  the  buildings 
of  the  greater  monasteries  for  both  sexes 
were  ;  even  the  smaller  had  a  chapel  and  a  hall 
and  other  edifices  equal  to  those  of  a  college 
at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  Indeed,  extrava- 
gance in  building  was  a  temptation  into 
which  monks  and  nuns  too  often  fell. 

Monasteries  needed  inmates.  In  the  days 
of  enthusiasm,  which  were  well  over  before 
1300,  men  of  mature  age  often  joined  them, 
but  always,  as  it  seems,  the  majority  of  their 
members  had  been  trained  for  the  calling 
from  childhood.     The  little  Bede  had  been 


58      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

given  by  his  parents  to  the  monks  at  seven. 
In  his  case  the  result  was  admirable  ;  but  we 
may  doubt  whether  there  was  much  enthus- 
iasm in  the  case  of  ordinary  boys,  trained 
from  childhood  to  take  the  round  of  services 
and  the  regular  life  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Yet  the  surroundings  of  the  corporate  life, 
its  majesty,  its  manifold  interests,  financial 
or  administrative  for  those  of  more  secular 
mind,  literary  or  historical  for  the  scholars, 
devotional  for  those  whose  gifts  lay  that  way, 
must  have  saved  it  from  becoming  monotonous 
to  those  who  had  been  brought  up  to  believe 
implicitly  that  the  monastic  was  the  best 
of  lives  and  that  their  own  was  the  best  type 
of  monastic  life.  With  all  its  dangers, 
esprit  de  corps  was  a  motive  which  could 
not  be  dispensed  with  when  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  up  numbers  and  maintain  contentment 
and  a  good  average  of  life  and  feeling.  It 
must  be  said  that  the  evidence  of  keen  religious 
feeling  is  not  usually  clear,  and  perhaps  it  is 
better  attested  for  humble  houses  than  for 
great  ones  ;  while  the  conventional  use  of 
Biblical  language — all  monks  learned  the 
Psalter  by  heart  as  boys — was  often  grotesque. 
Education,  apart  from  the  training  of  novices, 
was  no  part  of  the  proper  duties  of  the  monk, 
and  was  regarded  by  the  more  strict  as  a 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         5d 

distraction  from  the  worship  to  which  he  was 
pledged.  It  was  found  necessary  as  a  means 
of  support  by  many  ill-endowed  nunneries, 
which  became  boarding  schools  for  young 
ladies,  but  when  we  hear  of  a  grammar  school 
supported  by  a  monastery  we  must  think  of  it 
as  a  benefit  conferred  by  a  wealthy  landlord 
on  the  neighbourhood  rather  than  as  an 
activity  of  the  religious  body  itself. 

Privilege,  exemption  from  authority,  was  a 
passion  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  monasteries 
struggled  for  it,  and  with  much  success. 
They  could  not  willingly  submit  to  inspection 
by  bishops  or  even  by  archbishops.  Some 
of  them  succeeded  in  excluding  any  official 
visitor  but  a  legate  direct  from  Rome.  Prob- 
ably they  would  not  have  greatly  gained  in 
efficiency  had  they  been  subject  to  regular 
inspection,  but  they  would  have  been  more 
thoroughly  incorporated  in  the  national 
Church.  The  status  of  this  mixed  multitude 
of  religious  houses  varied  infinitely.  Social 
considerations  had  their  weight ;  parents 
might  find  it  difficult  to  gain  admission  to  a 
rich  and  famous  monastery  for  a  son  who 
would  be  welcomed  into  a  less  conspicuous 
house.  For  within  a  generation  or  two  of 
their  foundation  the  first  austerity  and  the 
purity    of   motive    died   down,    even   in   the 


60     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

case  of  the  Cistercians.  In  the  competition 
between  monastery  and  monastery,  between 
order  and  order,  worldly  considerations  be- 
came prominent.  Nothing  was  more  profit- 
able than  the  funeral  of  some  person  of  high 
estate.  It  meant  heavy  fees,  handsome 
presents,  an  endowment  for  the  maintenance 
of  memorial  services.  So  the  Cistercians  of 
Warden  Abbey  sent  out  men  at  arms  to 
kidnap  a  noble  corpse  on  its  way  to  burial  in 
another  monastery  ;  and  when  Geoffrey  de 
Mandeville,  the  worst  ruffian  of  Stephen's 
reign,  died  excommunicate  in  battle,  the 
Templars  took  possession  of  his  body,  wrapped 
it  in  lead  and  stowed  it  away  till  he  could 
obtain  a  posthumous  absolution,  whereupon 
they  gave  him  a  stately  funeral  in  their 
church  in  London,  to  the  chagrin  of  Geoffrey's 
own  foundation  at  Saffron  Walden.  In  fact, 
throughout  the  century  which  ended  with  the 
death  of  Henry  III.,  we  may  think  of  the 
monasteries  as  becoming  steadily  less  active 
in  their  religious  life,  and  more  interested  in 
their  external  and  political  concerns.  There 
was  a  stirring  intellectual  life  even  in  remote 
houses,  as  is  shown  by  the  annals  composed 
in  them,  and  the  successive  historians  of  St. 
Alban's,  culminating  in  Matthew  Paris,  are 
among  the  glories  of  England. 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         61 

The  heads  of  these  houses  held  a  conspicu- 
ous position  in  England.  When  Convocation 
sat,  all  of  them  were  present  as  official  mem- 
bers. In  Parliament  an  increasing  number 
received,  as  time  went  on,  summons  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  finally  their  number 
in  it  was  equal  to  that  of  the  bishops  ;  while 
the  Pope  from  the  twelfth  century  onwards 
granted  one  of  the  greater  abbots  after 
another  the  honour  of  wearing  episcopal 
insignia.  These  mitred  abbots  were  naturally 
in  most  cases  those  who  sat  as  barons.  Four 
of  the  chief  abbesses  also  ranked  as  peers. 
Thus  the  heads  of  the  great  monasteries 
were  of  equal  dignity  with  the  bishops,  and 
a  provision  had  to  be  made  for  them  corre- 
sponding to  their  position.  This  was  done 
by  a  division  of  estates  between  the  head  and 
the  house,  as  in  the  case  of  bishops  and 
chapters.  In  some  cases  as  much  as  a  third 
of  the  whole  revenue  (or  rather  of  the  sources 
which  furnished  it)  was  set  apart ;  and  the 
relative  importance  of  the  head  is  seen  by  the 
pension  assigned  him  when  the  house  was 
dissolved  by  Henry  VIII.  It  was  often  ten 
times  as  large  as  that  of  the  officers  next  in 
rank  to  himself. 

So  the  monasteries  stood,  dignified,  respect- 
able, generous  to  the  poor,  granting  pensions 


62     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

to  young  clerks  that  they  might  be  ordained 
without  risk  of  poverty,  in  many  ways  a 
pride  to  the  country  and  a  benefit  to  their 
neighbours,  and  doubtless  there  was  much 
sincere  worship  within  their  churches.  But  for 
two  centuries  and  a  half  before  their  suppres- 
sion Englishmen  were  no  more  disposed  to 
increase  their  number  than  they  are  to  add  to 
the  Livery  Companies  of  London  to-day. 

The  place  of  monks  and  regular  canons 
was  taken  in  popular  affection  by  the  friars. 
Christianity  has  had  no  better  evidence  than 
the  life  and  character  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. 
His  entire  self-surrender,  his  universal  sym- 
pathy, his  happiness  in  believing  have  earned 
for  him  in  recent  days  a  deserved  revival  of  love 
and  fame.  It  was  he  who  struck  out  the  idea  of 
a  mission  for  God  undertaken  in  absolute  trust, 
without  any  provision  for  sustenance.  His 
friars  started  out  at  his  impulse  to  comfort  the 
suffering  and  convert  the  heretic,  the  thought- 
less and  the  sinful,  begging  their  bread  as  they 
went,  and  renouncing  on  principle  all  possession 
of  property,  not  only  for  themselves  but  for 
their  order.  It  was  a  venture  of  faith,  and  it 
was  successful  in  winning  back  northern  Italy, 
which  was  overrun  with  a  strange  Patarine 
doctrine  that  at  bottom  was  not  Christian 
at  all.      A  mist  of  legend  and  poetry  hangs 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM         63 

over  the  words  of  St.  Francis,  his  doings,  and 
his  sufferings,  which  neither  obscures  nor 
unduly  heightens  his  glory.  His  resolve, 
based  on  St.  Matthew  x.  9,  10,  was  formed  and 
put  into  execution  in  1209.  It  found  favour 
with  the  greatest  of  the  Popes,  Innocent  III., 
who  only  doubted — the  doubt  showed  his 
practical  wisdom — whether  the  rejection  of 
corporate  property  could  be  maintained. 
But  he  was  over-persuaded  by  St.  Francis, 
and  sanctioned  the  rule  in  its  full  austerity. 
In  1219  the  number  of  friars  was  so  increased 
that  they  resolved  to  seek  work  outside  Italy. 
Begging  their  way,  strangers  at  first  to  the 
languages  of  the  countries  they  visited,  they 
poured  over  Europe,  and  reached  England 
in  1224.  Settling  among  the  outcasts  who 
dwelt  in  the  unsanitary  purlieus  of  the  towns, 
they  began  their  ministry.  They  had  wonder- 
ful success  in  their  appeal.  It  was  something 
entirely  new.  The  regular  clergy  had  their 
vocation  in  offering  continuous  worship  to 
God,  the  secular  clergy  were  employed  in 
sacramental  service  to  which,  it  was  assumed, 
the  people  would  resort.  But  neither  body 
had  felt  called  to  stimulate  devotion,  and 
mission  preaching  did  not  as  yet  fall  on  jaded 
ears.  There  began  what  may  be  called  a 
national  movement  towards  God,  temporary, 


64     THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

perhaps,  but  as  sincere  as  the  preaching  of 
those  penniless,  bare-footed  messengers  of  the 
Gospel. 

But  the  Franciscans,  or  Grey  Friars,  were 
not  the  first  to  reach  England.  The  Domini- 
cans, or  Black  Friars,  came  in  1221.  St. 
Dominic,  their  founder,  is  a  less  attractive 
figure  than  St.  Francis.  A  Spaniard  with  a 
passion  for  orthodoxy,  he  had  fimig  himself 
into  the  conflict  with  the  Albigensian  heresy 
in  Southern  France,  which  was  akin  to  the 
Patarine  of  Lombardy.  Learning  was  needful 
for  controversy,  and  Dominic  gathered  round 
him  a  body  of  clergy,  whose  task  should  be 
to  refute  and  convince.  To  the  heated 
imagination  of  the  age  miracles  accompanied 
the  preaching  of  Dominic,  but  the  heretics 
were  obstinate,  and  their  creed  was  extermi- 
nated by  the  sword  and  not  the  tongue. 
Whether  or  no  they  took  a  leading  part  in 
encouraging  massacre,  the  Dominicans  were 
more  conversant  than  any  other  religious  body 
with  the  ways  of  heretics,  and  to  them  was 
entrusted,  early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
management  of  the  Inquisition.  That  grim 
office  they  long  maintained ;  they  were 
burning  in  Portugal  even  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  the  Inquisition  never  took 
root  in  England.     Dominic's  foimdation  was 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         65 

sanctioned  at  Rome  in  1216,  but  it  was  not 
till  1220  that,  in  imitation  of  the  Franciscan 
rule,  the  Dominicans  adopted  the  principle 
of  mendicancy.  With  it  they  widened  their 
scope,  and  were  not  less  devoted  and  effective 
than  the  Franciscans  in  reviving  religion 
and  ministering  to  the  afflicted. 

The  Dominicans  had  a  businesslike  organi- 
zation from  the  first ;  against  the  will  of 
St.  Francis,  who  trusted  to  faith  and  impulse, 
a  system  of  government  was  devised  by  his 
brethren  and  accepted  by  the  Order  even  in 
the  lifetime  of  the  founder.  The  expansion 
had,  indeed,  been  so  rapid  that  a  definite 
constitution  was  needed  if  the  society  were 
not  to  fall  to  pieces.  In  the  case  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans there  was  another  change  of  great 
moment.  St.  Francis  had  desired  that  his 
followers  should  appeal  as  poor  men  to  the 
poor.  On  the  other  hand  the  Dominicans 
from  the  first  felt  that  a  part  of  their  mission 
was  to  the  educated,  and  had  aimed  at 
gaining  a  foothold  in  the  Universities  of 
Europe.  The  two  Orders  were  working  on 
parallel  lines  and  often,  it  must  be  said,  in 
rivalry,  and  where  one  led  the  other  almost 
inevitably  followed.  The  Franciscans  accord- 
ingly soon  entered  upon  University  work. 
In    England,    Oxford    and    Cambridge    were 


m     THE    CHURCH   OF    ENGLAND 

among  the  first  settlements  of  both.  The 
two  struck  out  rival  lines  in  theology  and 
philosophy,  and  if  the  Dominicans  can  boast 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  official  metaphysician 
of  the  Roman  communion  to-day,  the  Fran- 
ciscans have  had  their  victory  in  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Immaculate  Conception  in  1854, 
against  which  the  Dominicans  waged  a 
conflict  of  centuries.  In  these  controversies 
Englishmen  took  prominent  part  on  either 
side. 

These  great  societies  found  many  imitators. 
Several  more  Orders  of  friars  were  founded 
within  a  few  years  of  the  Franciscans  and 
Dominicans,  all  of  which  but  two  were  soon 
forced  by  the  Popes  to  amalgamate  with  one 
or  other  of  the  stronger  bodies.  These  two 
were  the  Austin  Friars  and  the  Carmelites, 
who  competed  in  England  on  not  unequal 
terms  with  the  original  Orders.  It  was, 
indeed,  a  competition,  for  these  unendowed 
bodies  were  all  building  up  elaborate  organiza- 
tions, evangelistic  and  educational,  without 
any  secure  source  of  income,  and  were  raising 
churches,  some  of  which  were  almost  on  the 
cathedral  scale.  Their  activity  brought  the 
friars  into  hostility  with  the  monasteries, 
for  the  gifts  and  the  burial  fees  that  would 
have  gone  to  the  adornment  or  to  the  building 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         67 

funds  of  the  latter  were  now  diverted. 
Even  members  of  the  royal  family  were 
buried  in  churches  of  the  friars.  The  com- 
petition also  embittered  the  parish  clergy. 
When  consciences  were  touched,  men  and 
women  wished  to  make  confession  to  their 
new  guides,  who  were  empowered  by  the 
Pope  to  usurp  this  function  of  the  parish 
priest.  But  the  friars  went  successfully  on 
their  way,  supported  by  the  Pope  and  also 
by  the  best  of  the  English  bishops.  Soon 
bishops  and  archbishops  were  chosen  from 
their  number.  Friars  sat  on  the  throne  of 
Canterbury  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Thus 
strong  forces,  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  were 
on  their  side,  and  they  were  able  to  organize 
a  new  thing,  a  comprehensive  system  for 
collecting  money.  Needless  to  say,  each 
Order  acted  for  itself,  and  in  competition 
with  the  other  friars  as  much  as  with  the 
older  religious  forces  of  the  country.  And 
each  Order  acted  for  itself  as  a  whole.  Every 
friar  belonged  to  the  whole  Order  directly, 
and  not,  as  was  the  case  with  the  monastic 
Orders,  through  his  membership  of  a  particular 
house  belonging  to  the  federation,  Benedictine, 
Cistercian,  or  other.  Thus  there  was  a  mobility 
about  the  friars  that  enabled  them  to  regard 
England,    and    indeed    Christendom,    as    a 


68     THE    CHURCH   OF    ENGLAND 

whole,  and  to  form  and  execute  large  plans. 
It  seems,  indeed,  that  in  their  central  organi- 
zation, and  especially  in  that  of  the  Domini- 
cans, the  idea  of  representation,  by  which 
the  absent  are  bound  by  the  vote  of  the 
present  and  the  minority  by  that  of  the 
majority,  was  first  worked  out,  and  thence 
spread  to  the  Church  and  the  State,  to  Parlia- 
ments and  to  National  Synods.  Their  financial 
system,  which  seems  to  have  been  similar  in 
each  of  the  four  Orders,  was  that  of  dividing 
the  country  into  districts,  called  "  limits," 
wdthin  which  appointed  friars  travelled  sys- 
tematically, collecting  funds  for  the  general 
purposes  of  the  society.  We  have  travelled 
far  from  the  original  plan  of  humble  emissaries 
begging  their  bread  from  day  to  day,  without 
thought  for  the  future  or  for  a  wider  work 
than  their  own.  But  for  the  present  friars 
were  in  earnest ;  the  money  was  given  with 
a  good  heart  and  was  worthily  spent.  The 
"  ly  my  tours  "  or  "  limiters,"  the  friars  em- 
ployed on  this  task,  were  familiar  and  welcome 
figures.  The  system  had  a  notable  effect  in 
distributing  the  friars  over  the  whole  country. 
As  the  great  modern  banks  need  branches  in 
every  town  of  importance,  so  it  was  with  the 
friars.  The  importance  of  the  town  may  be 
estimated    by    the    number    of    mendicant 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM         69 

Orders  that  settled  in  it,  mainly,  no  doubt, 
because  of  the  scope  it  offered  for  their  work, 
but  also  for  business  reasons.  Thirteen  of 
the  chief  to^\Tis  had  all  four,  nine  had  three, 
the  others  two  or  one,  and  there  were  few 
market  towns  that  had  none.  In  the  villages 
they  rarely  settled  ;  they  were  content  to 
evangelize  them  in  passing.  In  one  more 
respect  the  friars  found  it  necessary  to  tamper 
with  their  principle  of  poverty.  They  had 
convents  attached  to  their  churches  as  homes 
for  the  missioners.  As  time  went  on  bene- 
factors gave  actual  endowments,  houses  and 
lands,  to  the  several  convents  ;.  not,  it  is  true, 
on  a  large  scale  in  any  case,  but  the  aggregate 
revenue  was  not  contemptible.  Here  was  a 
clear  breach  of  the  rule.  It  was  evaded  by 
the  legal  fiction  that  the  Pope  was  the  pro- 
prietor, and  allowed  the  friars  to  enjoy  the 
income.  Or  else  the  corporation  of  the  town 
was  placed  in  the  same  kindly  relation  to  the 
mendicants  ;  it  was  made  what  would  now 
be  called  their  trustee,  and  this  necessity  of 
the  friars  played  its  part  in  developing  the 
English  law  of  trusts. 

At  the  head  of  this  great  system,  over  parish 
clergy,  monks,  friars,  laymen,  stood  the  Pope. 
We  have  seen  how  a  theological  theory  had 
been   advanced  to  explain  his  obvious  pre- 


70     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

eminence  in  western  Christendom.  The  theory 
heightened  his  authority  ;  it  was  confirmed 
by  the  feudal  theory,  universally  accepted, 
that  society  spiritual  as  well  as  secular 
must  have  a  single  head,  responsible  only  to 
God.  It  was  supported  by  a  succession  of 
forgeries,  perpetrated  by  men  who  sincerely 
thought  that  they  were  buttressing  the  truth, 
which  for  centuries  were  to  be  accepted 
without  demur.  One  of  them,  the  Forged 
Decretals,  has  been  solemnly  pronounced 
authentic  and  authoritative  by  the  great 
Pope  Gregory  VII.  Extracts  from  those 
Decretals  may  be  found  in  current  textbooks 
as  part  of  the  law  of  the  Roman  communion 
to-day.  The  theory  became  a  principle,  no 
more  to  be  disputed  than  the  equally  authori- 
tative principle  that  the  sun  moves  roimd  the 
earth. 

The  Pope,  then,  is  irresponsible.  He  is 
bound  only  by  the  law  of  nature  and  that  of 
revelation,  which  tell  him  what  is  right  and 
what  is  wrong  ;  and  he  is  the  uncontrolled 
interpreter  of  both  those  laws.  If  he  abuses 
his  trust  he  will  go  to  hell ;  good  Bishop 
Grosseteste  of  Lincoln  warned  Innocent  IV., 
by  no  means  a  bad  Pope,  of  the  danger, 
and  Dante  in  his  vision  saw  Popes  in  hell. 
But   though   men   might   repine,   they   must 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         71 

not  resist.  This  unlimited  authority  is  also 
omnipresent.  Every  Christian  is  the  Pope's 
parishioner :  no  interference  on  his  part 
can  be  an  intrusion.  And  very  possibly  he 
has  not  only  the  plenitude  of  authority  but 
also  the  sole  possession  of  it.  It  is  a  tenable 
doctrine,  and  widely  prevalent  in  the  Roman 
communion  to-day,  that  bishops  have  no 
divine  origin  for  their  authority,  but  enjoy  it 
as  the  Pope's  delegates.  Such  was  the 
postulate  on  which  the  canon  law,  from  about 
the  year  1000  and  at  first  in  Germany,  was 
huiit  up  in  the  Papal  interest.  It  was  one  of 
two  laws,  the  other  being  the  civil,  that  were 
being  developed  at  the  same  time,  on  parallel 
and  rival  lines  and  each  borrowing  from  the 
other.  Both  were  Roman  in  spirit,  and 
both  despotic,  each  assuming  the  existence 
of  a  head  of  mankind,  supreme  in  his  own 
sphere.  The  civil  law,  sprung  from  Justinian, 
gained  little  lodgment  in  England,  for  it 
was  repugnant  to  English  customs  and 
liberties.  The  canon  law,  with  very  similar 
faults  and  merits  and  a  like  origin,  was 
accepted  without  demur  as  a  corollary  of 
the  undisputed  proposition  that  the  Pope 
in  the  spiritual  domain  is  supreme. 

This  law,   partly  made   up  of  the   canons 
of  Councils,  ancient  or  recent,  partly  of  Papal 


72     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

utterances  genuine  or  spurious,  was  universal. 
It  grew  to  completeness  between  the  twelfth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  and  varying  as  its 
contents  did  in  value  it  was  taken  with  equal 
seriousness  throughout.  But  the  law  itself 
was  not  more  important  than  its  commenta- 
tors. No  field  has  been  cultivated  with  more 
activity  and  ingenuity  than  was  this  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages.  The  result  was  the 
provision  of  a  wonderful  system  of  guidance 
in  all  the  relations  of  life  that  concerned 
religion  and  conscience,  when  those  terms 
were  stretched  as  widely  as  possible.  Mar- 
riages, wills  (for  the  making  of  a  will  was  part 
of  the  preparation  for  death),  questions  of 
legitimacy,  the  affiliation  of  illegitimate  chil- 
dren, sins  of  every  kind  as  distinct  from 
crimes,  and  crimes  themselves  when  com- 
mitted by  the  clergy,  were  some  of  its  topics. 
It  concerned  itself  with  the  enforcement  of 
promises,  and  punished  perjury,  which  was 
a  crime  against  God.  Its  rules  came  to  be 
more  and  more  elaborate,  and  its  prohibitions 
more  numerous.  And  this  gave  an  opening 
for  a  dispensing  power,  superior  to  the  law 
itself.  You  might  not  marry  a  distant  cousin, 
but  you  could  buy  a  dispensation  ;  you  must 
go  to  confession  to  your  parish  priest,  but 
you  could  buy  a  licence  to  choose  your  own 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         73 

confessor.  Such  were  typical  examples  of 
this  mediaeval  law,  which  resembled  a  turnpike 
road,  with  toll-gates  set,  not  to  hinder  traffic, 
but  to  raise  a  revenue.  The  ultimate  author 
of  all  these  licences  was  the  Pope,  who  was 
greater  than  the  law.  And  undoubtedly  the 
Popes  did  a  great  service  to  society  by  over- 
ruling and  interpreting  away  many  angulari- 
ties and  extravagances  of  their  canon  law,  to 
which  law,  it  must  be  said,  our  existing 
jurisprudence  is  deeply  indebted.  Now  this 
law,  being  universal,  was  wholly  applicable 
to  England  as  to  other  countries.  As  Arch- 
bishop Peckham  of  Canterbury  said,  those 
whom  Peter  binds  with  the  chain  of  his  laws 
are  bound  in  the  court  of  the  supreme  and 
heavenly  Emperor.  God  Himself  is  defined 
in  feudal  terms.  It  was  true  that  long- 
established  custom  contrary  to  the  law  was 
regarded  as  locally  annulling  the  latter ; 
but  such  exceptions  were  few,  and  apart  from 
them  the  English  Church  could  not  disclaim 
obedience.  Its  Convocations  could,  at  the 
most,  only  pass  bye-laws,  valid  so  far  as  they 
did  not  contradict  the  general  law. 

This  fulness  of  Papal  power  could  not 
always  be  exercised,  as  we  shall  see,  but  was 
admitted  in  principle  from  the  Conquest 
onwards,  nor  would  it  have  been  disputed, 


74     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

as  a  theoretical  proposition,  by  Edward  the 
Confessor.  The  history  of  the  EngUsh  Church 
is  largely  that  of  an  increasing  submission 
to  the  claim,  which  steadily  became  more 
explicit  and  more  comprehensive.  For  a 
while  it  was  commended  by  the  moderate  use 
made  of  it  and  by  the  actual  benefits  which, 
as  will  appear,  the  Popes  were  able,  through 
its  exercise,  to  confer  upon  England.  But 
in  time  Rome  came  to  presume  upon  its 
admitted  right :  then  came  complaints  of 
ever-increasing  emphasis.  But  so  long  as  the 
principle  was  admitted,  resistance  was  vain. 
The  Reformation  came  when  this  Papal  right 
was  examined,  and  rejected  as  tmfounded. 
Then  there  was  a  new  start  in  the  religious 
sphere,  as  there  was  in  that  of  natural  science 
when  Copernicus  rejected  the  ancient  astron- 
omy. 

When  William  I.  was  king  and  Lanfranc 
was  archbishop,  the  Papal  claims  were  becom- 
ing more  and  more  definite,  and  the  rulers 
of  England  were,  from  the  Papal  point  of 
view,  behind  the  times.  They  held  old- 
fashioned  views  concerning  the  appointment 
of  bishops,  which  were  not  contested  by 
Rome,  because  there  was  a  respectability 
about  the  English  Church  which  raised  it 
above  the  level  of  the  (German,  for  authority 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         75 

over  which  the  Popes  were  contending  ;  and 
it  is  just  to  remember  that  they  were  fighting 
for  decency  as  well  as  for  themselves.  Thus 
the  question  of  the  day  was  not  at  first 
raised  in  England,  and  Lanfranc,  supported 
by  the  Conqueror,  had  a  free  hand  to  introduce 
such  reforms  as  seemed  needful.  It  was  he 
who  instituted  rural  deans  in  England,  as 
officers  for  the  local  supervision  of  clergy  and 
people.  The  latter  duty,  that  of  discovering 
and  punishing  immorality,  was  quite  as 
important  a  part  of  their  task  as  the  former, 
which  still  survives,  and  they  held  regular 
courts  at  which  offenders  had  to  appear 
and  where  small  wills  were  proved.  In 
Lanfranc's  time  archdeacons  also  became 
general  in  the  English  dioceses,  and  soon 
after  his  day  almost  every  county  in  Eng- 
land had  its  owTi  archdeacon,  while  before 
the  Conquest  such  officers  had  been  few. 
Both  these  provisions  for  good  order  in  the 
Church  were  after  the  Norman  pattern,  and 
from  Normandy  came  all  the  new  leaders  of 
the  English  Church  and  the  patterns  that 
were  followed  in  recasting  its  institutions,  as 
for  instance  that  separation  between  church 
courts  and  lay  courts  which  Lanfranc  and  his 
master  introduced.  But  though  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Church  had  never  been  so  perfect,  it 


76      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

was  doubtless  in  the  main  a  scheme  on  paper. 
The  independence  of  the  parish  clergy  and  the 
difficulties  of  communication  were  facts  as 
stubborn  as  ever,  and  Lanfranc's  machinery- 
can  never  have  worked  efficiently. 

William  was  strong,  and  his  archbishop 
supported  him,  so  that  Papal  claims,  admitted 
in  principle,  were  not  admitted  in  practice. 
Appeals  to  Rome,  free  communication  between 
English  ecclesiastics  and  Rome,  were  kept  in 
check ;  and  what  might  have  wrought  a 
cleavage  of  the  Church,  so  weakening  it  and 
strengthening  the  hold  of  Rome,  was  effectually 
prevented.  York  was  made  subordinate  to 
Canterbury,  and  in  due  time  the  king  and  the 
successor  of  St.  Augustine,  working  together, 
were  to  be  strong  enough  to  overthrow  the 
mediaeval  system.  If  York  had  been  on  a 
parity  with  Canterbury  there  must  have  been 
confusion  of  counsel  and  division  of  forces, 
and  the  Pope  might  have  held  his  own.  Lan- 
franc  was  unwittingly  preparing  for  Cranmer. 
At  the  time  he  and  William  had  no  thought 
beyond  that  of  strengthening  each  other. 
The  method  adopted  was  that  of  deliberate 
forgery.  In  1072  Lanfranc  produced  what 
purported  to  be  copies  of  letters  written  by 
Gregory  the  Great  and  his  successors  to  the 
early  archbishops  of  Canterbury,  conveying 


THE   MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         77 

to  them  privileges  quite  contrary  to  the  purpose 
of  Gregory  as  recorded  by  Bede.  The  ori- 
ginals, he  said,  had  been  lost  in  a  recent  fire, 
but  copies  had  fortunately  been  taken,  and 
in  an  uncritical  age  these  forgeries,  obviously 
unhistorical  and  teeming  with  anachronisms, 
were  accepted  without  demur.  They  reduced 
York  to  a  position  from  which  neither 
historical  truth  nor  unwearied  protests  nor 
unseemly  brawls  were  able  to  raise  that  see 
and  province,  though  as  a  compromise,  finally 
sanctioned  in  1354,  York  gained  the  style  of 
"  Primate  of  England  "  as  an  approximation 
to  the  title  "  Primate  of  all  England  "  borne 
by  Canterbury. 

And  here  something  must  be  said  of  forgery 
as  an  aspect  of  mediaeval  church  life.  No  great 
church,  no  great  monastery  failed  to  profit  by 
it.  The  temptation  was  urgent,  for  no  one  was 
likely  to  dispute  the  authenticity  of  the  docu- 
ments produced,  and  the  mental  state  of  the 
authors  was  not  such  as  to  be  shocked,  morally 
or  intellectually,  at  the  transgression.  The 
men  of  the  IMiddle  Ages,  except  in  strength 
and  passions  and  intelligence,  were  schoolboys, 
and  boys  in  an  undisciplined  school  where 
untruthfulness,  like  other  vices,  was  sanc- 
tioned by  a  perverted  standard  of  honour. 
But  beside  the  cases,  numerous  enough  and 


78     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

especially  important  where  the  forgery  was 
perpetrated  in  the  interests  of  Rome,  of  wilful 
falsehood,  there  were  others  for  which  a  certain 
excuse  may  be  made.  Half-educated  people 
will  sometimes  attempt  to  pass  off  a  will 
which  they  are  convinced  represents  what 
was,  or  what  ought  to  have  been,  the  purpose 
of  the  testator  better  than  the  testament  which 
he  actually  signed.  In  the  same  spirit  many 
mediaeval  forgeries  w^ere  committed,  and 
perhaps  that  of  Lanfranc,  though  it  is  rather 
difficult  to  give  the  benefit  of  this  excuse  to 
a  mind  so  highly  trained  as  his.  Yet  here, 
as  always,  we  must  extend  a  certain  clemency, 
and  at  the  same  time  bear  in  mind  that  an 
element  of  weakness  must  be  allowed  for  in 
any  mediaeval  examples  we  may  be  disposed 
to  take  quite  seriously. 

In  the  relation  between  England  and  the 
Papacy  during  the  mediaeval  period  there  was 
one  advantage  on  the  side  of  the  former.  It 
was  often  an  open  question  who  was  Pope. 
There  were  strong  reasons  for  hesitation 
between  the  rivals,  and  William  and  Lanfranc 
actually  kept  the  Papacy  for  a  while  in  abey- 
ance, so  far  as  England  was  concerned.  And 
when  a  Pope  was  recognized,  he  had  to  be 
on  his  guard  lest  the  king  were  offended. 
Hence  neither  of  the  two  champions  of  eccle- 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         79 

siastical  claims,  Archbishops  Anselm  and 
Thomas,  had  the  hearty  support  of  the  con- 
temporary Popes  in  their  conflicts  with  Henry 
I.  and  Henry  II.,  and  in  both  cases  the  issue 
of  the  struggle  was  a  compromise  decidedly 
favourable  to  the  king. 

The  investiture  of  bishops  was  the  point  of 
debate  between  Henry  I.  and  St.  Anselm. 
Tlie  latter  had  received  his  staff,  as  the  symbol 
of  his  office,  in  the  traditional  manner  from 
William  Rufus,  and  would  have  been  ready 
to  do  homage  to  his  successor  had  not  a 
Roman  council  in  1099,  at  which  he  Avas  pre- 
sent as  an  exile  from  the  tyranny  of  William 
II.,  pronounced  anathema  against  any  clerk 
who  should  receive  investiture  of  a  benefice 
from  a  layman,  or  become  his  man.  This 
was  now  Church  law  ;  St.  Anselm  felt  himself 
bound  to  obey  it,  and  left  England  rather 
than  submit.  Yet  in  1107  he  consented  to 
a  compromise  by  which  the  king  abandoned 
investiture  and  received  homage.  This  became 
the  established  custom  for  bishops  and  abbots. 
In  the  case  of  Thomas  also,  though  he  attained 
the  honours  of  saintship  by  his  death,  sub- 
stantial victory  rested  with  the  king,  and  the 
extreme  claims  advanced  by  the  archbishop 
were  dropped  after  his  martyrdom. 

But  if  English  custom  prevailed  in  certain 


80     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

respects,  this  did  not  hinder  the  acceptance 
of  the  canon  law,  and  the  Pope  as  its  inter- 
preter, as  authoritative  in  all  other  matters. 
And  the  case  was  complicated  by  the  uncer- 
tainty which  hung  over  the  position  of 
Canterbury  when  the  archbishop  was  also 
legate  of  the  Pope.  This  office  was  at  first 
granted  as  a  personal  favour,  and  lasted 
only  during  the  life  of  the  Pope  who  gave 
it,  but  in  1221  Archbishop  Stephen  Langton 
was  made  legate  for  life,  and  the  office  was 
continued  to  his  successors.  Till  Cranmer 
dropped  it  in  1534,  "  legate  of  the  Apostolic 
see  "  was  part  of  the  official  style  of  Canter- 
bury. In  any  act  of  authority  or  any  decision 
of  his  court  he  might  well  seem  to  be  exer- 
cising this  legatine  power  rather  than  that 
of  the  successor  of  St.  Augustine.  And  if 
the  Pope  chose,  as  he  often  did,  to  take  some 
English  controversy  into  his  own  hands  and 
appoint  delegates  to  settle  it,  those  delegates, 
in  that  particular  instance,  superseded  the 
legatine  authority  of  the  archbishop,  and 
were  also  superior  to  him  if  he  attempted  to 
act  as  archbishop.  He  was  ignored  in  the  one 
capacity  and  over-ruled  in  the  other,  though 
the  delegates  were  of  lower  ecclesiastical 
rank  than  his  own.  There  was  much  indig- 
nation, but  so  long  as  the  axiom  was  undis- 


THE    MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM         81 

puted  that  the  Pope  is  the  head  of  Christendom, 
there  could  be  no  effective  resistance.  And 
when,  on  special  occasions,  legates  a  latere, 
plenipotentiaries  of  the  Pope,  came  from 
Rome,  there  was  an  authority  present  to 
whom  all,  archbishops  included,  were  con- 
strained to  bow  in  submission. 

But  the  seeds  of  the  downfall  of  the  Papacy 
were  already  so^vn  by  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  /  The  temptation  to  the 
Roman  authorities  of  extending  their  finan- 
cial resources  by  furnishing  their  officers  with 
stipends  from  English  and  other  churches 
was  irresistible.  Rome  was  poor,  for  though 
one  of  the  bases  of  its  claims  was  the  Donation 
of  Constantine,  the  local  revenues  were  no 
greater  than  the  local  needs.  No  one  had 
anticipated  that  a  cosmopolitan  diplomacy 
and  a  world-w4de  jurisdiction  would  arise, 
needing  a  host  of  educated  officers  who  might 
justly  claim  an  adequate  salary.  They  were 
all  clerks  and  so  might  hold  benefices  ;  they 
were  in  the  service  of  a  power  which  had 
the  undisputed  right  to  dispense  them  from 
residence.  Now  the  English  kings  since  Cnut 
had  also  had  a  staff  of  clerks  who  formed 
their  civil  service.  They  too  needed  stipends, 
and  money  was  scarce  in  royal  coffers.  The 
benefices   of    the    Church    were    an    obvious 


82      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

resource,  and  if  there  were  difficulties  iii 
forcing  a  high  official  into  the  throne  of  a 
bishopric,  it  was  convenient  to  have  Papal 
pressure  to  aid  in  overcoming  the  resistance. 
It  was  a  devout  imagination  in  cathedral 
chapters  that  they  might  be  allowed  to  choose 
their  bishop.  It  was  sometimes  promised  and 
sometimes  allowed  ;  generally  the  King  com- 
pelled the  chapter,  with  or  without  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Pope,  to  accept  his  nominee. 
There  were  some  important  occasions,  especi- 
ally in  regard  to  Canterbury,  when  Popes 
ignored  both  King  and  chapter  and  appointed 
the  man  of  their  own  choice  in  the  exercise  of 
their  supreme  authority ;  but  such  cases 
were  few,  and  merely  enhanced  the  value  of 
Papal  co-operation  in  the  ordinary  instances 
where  he  concurred  with  the  king.  Bishop- 
rics were  great  rewards  for  high  officials ; 
the  average  clerk  in  the  civil  service  had  to 
be  contented  with  prebends  or  benefices,  and 
if  he  were  fortunate  he  might  secure  several. 
But  as  the  canon  law  grew  more  precise, 
attention  came  to  be  paid  to  pluralities. 
The  law  had  no  objection  to  these,  if  a 
licence  had  been  bought,  and  the  sale  of  the 
licence  was  as  much  a  matter  of  course  as  in  the 
case  of  a  marriage  without  banns.  And  con- 
stantly in  a  litigious  age — no  society,  even 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         83 

to-day,  enjoys  the  excitement  of  litigation 
so  much  as  one  that  is  half-educated  and 
agricultural,  as  was  that  of  our  forefathers 
— there  were  disputes  as  to  the  tenure  of 
ecclesiastical  preferments  which  could  not 
be  effectually  settled  without  a  Papal  verdict, 
so  that  the  business  transacted  for  England, 
the  most  submissive  of  western  countries 
and  the  most  scrupulous  as  to  Church  pro- 
perty, was  a  never  failing  source  of  work  and 
income  to  the  Roman  courts.  But  when  so 
much  preferment  was  in  question,  why 
should  not  the  Pope  have  his  share  ?  He 
was  helping  the  King  to  relieve  his  treasury 
by  providing  his  clerks  with  stipends  ;  might 
not  he  claim  to  do  as  much  for  himself  ? 
He  and  his  officers  were  clergy  ;  the  Church 
was  cosmopolitan  and  he  was  the  head  of  it. 
The  temptation  was  too  strong,  and  early 
in  the  thirteenth  century  Roman  officials, 
who  never  saw  England,  were  being  paid  from 
English  endowments,  cathedral  and  parochial. 
The  process  was  simple.  The  head  of  the 
Church  had  the  right  to  give  his  orders,  and 
especially  to  issue  them  to  the  clergy.  A 
bishop  or  an  abbot  was  ordered  to  reserve 
the  next  benefice  in  his  gift  of  a  certain  value 
for  some  Italian  clerk,  named  or  to  be  named  ; 
and  even  a  custom  which  the  English  attempted 


84      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

to  set  up,  that  one  Italian  should  not  be 
immediately  succeeded  by  another,  was  master- 
fully ignored.  Clerical  patrons  had  to  sub- 
mit; it  was  not  found  possible,  though  the 
attempt  was  made,  to  treat  lay  patrons  in 
the  same  way. 

Papal  hold  on  England  was  strengthened 
when  John  was  forced  to  become  the  man  of 
Innocent  III.  John  had  plunged  into  a 
quarrel  in  which  he  was  in  the  wrong ;  the 
great  Pope  first  excommunicated  him  and 
then  threatened  to  issue  a  bull  depriving  him 
of  his  kingdom  as  unworthy  to  reign.  John 
submitted,  and  the  Pope  for  a  price  gave  John, 
not  less  unworthy  than  before,  his  full 
support.  The  price  was  that  John  surrendered 
his  kingdom  to  the  Pope,  and  received  it 
back  as  a  vassal,  swearing  fealty  and  paying 
tribute  to  his  superior.  What  right  the  one 
had  to  surrender  and  the  other  to  bestow 
the  kingdom  we  need  not  enquire.  In  their 
research  for  sources  of  income  the  claim  to 
feudal  superiority  over  kingdoms  was  often 
made  by  the  Popes.  It  had  been  attempted 
in  vain  with  William  I.  The  Pope  had 
approved  his  English  adventure,  and  construed 
this  approval  as  a  grant.  If  William  had 
accepted  a  grant,  he  would  on  feudal  principles 
have  incurred  the  obligation  of  fealty  to  his 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         85 

Papal  superior.  But  William  refused  to 
interpret  the  transaction  in  this  way,  and 
the  claim  was  dropped.  It  was  accepted  by- 
Henry  II.  in  the  case  of  Ireland,  of  which  he 
received  the  lordship  (not  the  kingdom)  from 
Hadrian  IV.;  but  Edward  I.  would  not 
consent  to  take,  nor  Robert  Bruce  to  hold, 
Scotland  by  the  same  tenure.  The  claim 
to  give  a  kingdom  was  easily  made,  and 
nothing  was  lost  if  nothing  came  of  it.  In 
the  English  case,  however,  the  Popes  are 
seen  at  their  best.  The  feudal  superior  was 
bound  to  protect  his  vassal,  and  this  was 
honestly  done  during  the  minority  of  John's 
son,  Henry  III.  England  was  better  ruled 
under  the  disinterested  influence  of  Rome 
than  in  Henry's  later  life,  when  Pope  and  King 
demoralised  each  other  to  the  grave  injury  of 
our  country.  But  England  was  not  long 
to  submit  to  this  dubious  authority.  It  was 
soon  ignored  and  the  tribute  remained  unpaid, 
and  finally,  in  1366,  was  repudiated  by  Parlia- 
ment when  Pope  Urban  V.  was  unwise  enough 
to  renew  the  demand. 

Extensions  of  English  rule  both  expanded 
and  contracted  the  area  of  the  English 
Church.  Ireland,  where  in  the  eleventh 
century,  bishops  had  sought  consecration 
from  Canterbury,  as  a  stable  see  and  one  with 


86     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

a  definite  ecclesiastical  status  which  none  in 
Ireland  possessed,  received  after  the  English 
conquest  an  organisation  after  the  normal 
pattern.  Though  this  remained  in  great 
measure  a  constitution  on  paper,  it  withdrew 
all  cognisance  of  Irish  affairs  from  Canterbury. 
The  gradual  annexation  of  Wales  began  soon 
after  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  Norman 
bishops  soon  occupied  the  two  southern  sees. 
Wales  had  contained  four  dioceses,  mutually 
independent  and  forming  no  part  of  any 
ecclesiastical  province.  The  inconvenience  of 
this  had  been  felt  before  the  Conquest,  and 
in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  century  bishops 
of  Llandaff  had  been  consecrated  at  Canter- 
bury, and  had  promised  obedience  to  their 
consecrators.  St.  David's  retained  its  isola- 
tion till  St.  Anselm  exerted  his  authority 
over  its  occupants,  who  were  from  this  time 
onwards  chosen  under  royal  influence.  The 
less  important  northern  sees  maintained  a 
precarious  independence  during  the  Norman 
period,  and  it  was  not  till  Edward  I.'s  con- 
quest of  Wales  that  Bangor  fell  into  its  place 
in  the  province  of  Canterbury.  Then,  for 
the  first  time,  Wales  had  a  definite  ecclesiasti- 
cal position,  though  a  magnificent  fiction 
had  been  evolved  during  a  struggle  for  the 
bishopric  of  St.  David's,  which  provided  that 


THE    MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM         87 

see  ^vith  a  series  of  metropolitans  stretching 
back  to  the  seventh  century.  In  truth,  there 
had  been  no  Welsh  Church,  but  only  four  (once 
five)  sees  in  an  anomalous  position,  loyal  to  the 
best  of  their  ability  to  the  general  system  of 
the  Church,  but  with  many  interesting  pecu- 
liarities. These  in  the  course  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  levelled  down,  and  in  their  worship, 
as  well  as  in  their  organization  and  manner 
of  endow^ment,  the  Welsh  dioceses  were 
assimilated  to  the  English  pattern. 

It  remains  to  say  a  word  on  the  general 
impression  that  the  age,  which  ends  about 
1250,  leaves  upon  the  mind.  It  is  one  of 
extraordinary  contrasts.  We  find  through- 
out very  good  and  very  bad  men  side  by  side 
in  the  high  places  of  the  Church,  and  neither 
surprised  at  the  neighbourhood  of  the  other. 
It  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  contrast  is  in 
the  natural  course  of  things.  There  is  no 
uniform  standard,  none  of  that  modem 
respectability,  which  levels  up,  and  perhaps 
also  levels  dow^n.  There  is  no  standard 
because  there  is  no  uniform  public  opinion 
or  steady  government.  On  the  side  of  good, 
this  allows  a  freedom  of  self-development 
which  attains  to  the  highest  points  of  saint- 
liness  and  moral  beauty.  On  the  side  of 
evil,  this  lack  of  governance  may  be  com- 


88      THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

pared  again  to  the  state  of  an  ill-ordered 
school.  We  have  seen  it  fatal  to  truthful- 
ness ;  it  encouraged  also  cruelty,  coarseness, 
neglect  of  duty.  In  the  field  of  thought 
no  age  has  been  more  fertile  in  bold  theories, 
sweeping  assumptions,  unlimited  demands 
on  faith.  There  was  courage  because  the 
process  was  always  forward ;  there  was  no 
criticism  of  the  starting  points.  And  men 
were  the  bolder  in  developing  their  ideals, 
and  stated  them  in  the  more  emphatic 
terms,  just  because  they  did  not  feel  the 
responsibility  for  them  that  is  felt  by  those 
who  know  that  their  schemes  will  be  tested 
by  a  systematic  and  businesslike  examination 
or  execution.  They  had  no  need  for  com- 
promise. And  as  it  was  in  action  and 
thought,  so  it  was  in  personal  religion.  There 
was  piety  in  its  most  attractive  forms  ;  there 
was  gross  and  reckless  irreverence.  There 
was  simple  and  intelligent  belief,  there  was 
absurd  superstition.  But  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  allowance,  in  judging  persons,  needs 
always  to  be  made  for  the  character  of  their 
age  ;  and  in  no  age  have  belief  and  morals 
been  more  obviously  conditioned  by  the 
general  level  of  civilization. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    DECAY   OF   THE   MEDIEVAL   SYSTEM 

We  have  now  reached  the  time  when,  in 
succession  to  the  monk  and  the  friar,  the  parish 
priest  comes  to  the  front.  Save  for  him  the 
three  centuries  which  preceded  the  breach 
between  England  and  Rome  were  a  time  of 
ecclesiastical  decay.  In  every  department 
except  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  there 
was  progress.  But  in  these,  the  most  serious 
aspects  of  life,  there  w^as  no  progress  at  all. 
INIen  continued  to  live  by  the  ideas  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  their  scheme  of 
thought  became  not  only  threadbare  and 
uninteresting,  like  the  products  of  a  school 
of  art  or  literature  in  its  last  imitative  stage  ; 
it  became  powerless  for  moral  influence, 
and  ended  by  provoking  an  irresistible  repug- 
nance. Then  hostility  to  the  practice  and 
view  of  life  justified  by  the  mediaeval  theory  of 
the  Church  led  to  an  examination  and  rejection 
of  the  theory  itself. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  definite  date  for  the 


90     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

beginning  of  this  process.  Conspicuous  and 
unabashed  evil  had  been  inextricably  com- 
bined with  the  good  throughout  the  feudal 
period,  and  expressions  of  resentment  that 
bordered  on  rebellion  may  be  found  abundantly 
in  writers,  such  as  Matthew  Paris  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  who  never 
dreamed  that  a  change  in  the  system  could 
be  right,  even  were  it  possible.  But  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.  is  the  time  when  abuse 
begins  to  preponderate.  The  King  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Pope  in  foisting  thoroughly 
unfit  kinsmen  of  his  own  into  the  great  sees 
of  Canterbury  and  Winchester,  to  the  public 
scandal,  and  the  Pope  received  his  reward 
in  being  encouraged  to  fill  English  preferments 
with  Italian  absentees,  some  of  them  relations 
of  his  own.  Under  Edward  I.,  who  estab- 
lished the  English  Parliament  on  its  permanent 
footing,  began  a  systematic  limitation  of  the 
judicial  powers  of  the  Church  courts  and  of 
the  right  of  ecclesiastical  bodies  to  accept 
new  endowments  ;  and  his  last  Parliament 
made  strong  though  unsuccessful  protest 
against  Papal  grants  of  benefice.  In  1305 
began  the  really  discreditable  period  of  the 
Papacy,  when  seven  successive  Popes  lived 
at  Avignon,  exiled  from  Rome  or  unwilling 
to  live  there.     For  more  than  seventy  years 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  91 

(1305-1377)  the  Popes  were  Frenchmen, 
and  it  was  a  time  of  hostility  between  France 
and  England.  The  immorality  of  the  Papal 
court,  though  not  of  the  Popes  personally, 
was  notorious  ;  the  extravagance  was  reckless, 
and  the  Popes  had  no  scruple  as  to  methods 
of  raising  money.  The  grants  of  benefices 
were  no  longer  given  as  the  reward  of  service. 
They  were  sold,  and  often  sold  more  than 
once,  so  that  the  earlier  purchaser  was 
defrauded.  And  as  the  grants  of  a  Pope 
did  not  bind  his  successor,  the  newcomer 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  selling  again  all  the 
favours  of  which  his  predecessor  had  disposed. 
Add  to  this  that  Papal  justice  was  made  as 
expensive  as  possible  when  cases  were  tried 
in  the  court  of  Avignon,  and  fees  were 
raised  to  an  extortionate  level.  Bishops 
and  abbots  who  had  difficulties  to  overcome 
in  regard  to  their  election  were  burdened 
with  debts  which  often  they  did  not  live  to 
repay,  and  their  creditors,  bankers  who 
carried  on  their  business  at  that  court,  exacted 
usurious  interest  contrary  to  the  law  of  the 
Church. 

What  made  this  the  more  intolerable 
was  that  France  was  being  subsidized  with 
funds  that  came  from  England.  The  Popes 
were    supporting    France    against    England. 


92     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

This  raised  the  question  of  aUen  religious 
houses.  It  had  risen  on  a  small  scale  in  the 
case  of  Scottish  monasteries.  Robert  Bruce 
and  his  heirs  were  enemies  of  England,  and  it 
could  not  be  allowed  that  rents  of  English 
estates  which  Scottish  monks  o^vned  should 
pass  to  a  hostile  land.  But  the  case  only 
became  pressing  with  the  French  wars. 
Then  it  became  clear  that  England  could  not 
afford  to  be  cosmopolitan,  and  in  spite  of 
theory  the  line  was  drawn  at  the  English 
coast.  At  first  the  alien  houses  saw  their 
income  pass  into  the  king's  coffers,  or  paid 
heavy  sums  for  his  licence  to  become  denizen, 
i.e.y  purely  English,  neither  controlled  from 
abroad  nor  subsidizing  the  foreigner.  But 
Church  property  was  regarded  as  sacred,  and 
soon  a  permanent  use  was  made  of  the 
derelict  property.  English  founders  hence- 
forth raised  buildings,  but  looked  to  existing 
endowments  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
inmates.  So,  for  example,  William  of  Wyke- 
ham  obtained  a  large  portion  of  the  revenues 
for  his  great  colleges  at  Oxford  and  Winchester 
from  confiscated  monastic  lands.  So,  also, 
when  Henry  V.  in  1414  built  his  magnificent 
nunnery  of  Sion  at  Isleworth,  its  whole  income 
was  derived  from  the  same  source,  as  was 
that  of  Eton  and  King's  College,  Cambridge, 


MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM  98 

founded  by  Henry  VI.  Thus  was  formed  a 
precedent  that  was  soon  to  be  applied  to 
EngHsh  religious  houses  which  might  be 
deemed  superfluous. 

Meanwhile,  as  a  reaction  against  the  Papal 
claims,  which  were  as  emphatic  as  ever, 
though  the  power  to  enforce  them  was  begin- 
ning to  fail,  two  modes  of  thought  were 
becoming  prevalent  in  Germany  which  were 
to  influence  the  history  of  the  English  Church. 
One  of  these  was  a  mystical  pietism  for  the 
followers  of  which  the  externals  and  the 
government  of  the  Church  had  little  value. 
It  was  to  colour  the  German,  and  therefore 
also  the  English  Reformation.  The  other 
was  an  imperial  theory,  based  on  theological 
considerations,  which  was  a  worthy  rival  of 
the  Papal  scheme.  As  exercises  of  mediaeval 
ingenuity  they  are  equaUy  convincing,  and 
equally  unsatisfactory  to  us  moderns.  One 
of  the  leaders  in  this  movement  of  thought 
was  an  English  Franciscan,  William  of  Ock- 
ham,  who  lived  and  wrote  in  Germany ;  let 
it  be  noted  that  the  Church  was  now  divided 
against  itself,  and  that  great  bodies  of 
clerical  opinion  were  ranged  against  the 
conventional  Papal  position.  This  imperial- 
istic doctrine  of  the  rights  of  the  monarch  and 
especially  of  the  superiority  of  the  sovereign. 


94     THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND 

as  representing  the  nation,  to  the  priesthood, 
was  to  influence  the  English  Tudors  in  their 
deahngs  with  the  Church.  The  fourteenth 
century  prepared  the  way  for  the  Reformation 
of  the  sixteenth. 

In  England  itself  Wyclif  started  a  movement 
which  had  much  in  common  with  both  these 
German  phases  of  thought.  He  began  as  a 
practical  reformer,  giving  strong  expression 
to  current  discontent.  But  he  was  born  in 
an  argumentative  age,  and  had  had  the 
scholastic  training  of  Oxford,  and  he  found 
reasons  for  his  protest  that  could  be  construed 
as  heresy.  He  was  influenced  by  the  imperial- 
istic writers  of  Germany  to  deny  the  unlimited 
rights  which  were  claimed  by  the  Pope. 
He  denied  also  the  absolute  sacredness  of 
Church  property ;  if  it  were  abused,  the 
temporal  power  might  take  it  away.  But  he 
was  also  a  deeply  religious  man,  convinced 
that  ecclesiastical  acts  are  not  unconditionally 
valid.  A  good  man,  if  the  Pope  excommuni- 
cate him,  is  none  the  worse  ;  indeed,  if  he 
suffer  unjust  excommunication,  he  is  the 
better  for  it ;  Pope  and  cardinals  cannot 
restore  a  sinner  unless  Divine  grace  be  in  him. 
The  Pope  is  not  exempt  from  censure  and 
correction.  Such  were  some  of  Wyclif's 
theses,  and  he  had  his  University  behind  him 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  95 

in  his  demand  for  reform,  and  the  reasons 
which  he  alleged  to  justify  it.  Unfortunately, 
the  heads  of  the  English  Church  were  deeply 
interested  in  the  maintenance  of  abuses, 
and  if  they  condemned  them  they  would 
condemn  the  manner  of  their  own  promotion  ; 
while  the  attack  on  them  was  led  by  a  selfish 
body  of  lay  noblemen,  whose  mouthpiece 
Wyclif  became.  There  was  little  prospect 
of  real  reform  from  such  an  alliance,  and 
none  was  accomplished. 

At  the  height  of  Wyclif's  struggle  with  the 
English  bishops  the  great  schism  in  the 
Papacy  broke  out.  A  contested  election 
resulted  in  each  candidate  claiming  that  he 
had  been  lawfully  chosen.  One  set  up  his 
throne  at  Rome,  and  was  accepted  by  Eng- 
land, Italy,  Germany,  Poland  and  the  Scandi- 
navian countries ;  the  other  reigned  at 
Avignon,  and  was  recognized  in  France, 
Scotland,  and  the  Spanish  kingdoms.  The 
schism  broke  out  in  1378,  and  though  its 
serious  phase  ended  in  1409,  it  was  not  wholly 
healed  till  1449.  Europe  was  divided  into 
closed  compartments.  Each  Pope  had  his 
own  dominion  ;  even  the  saints  of  the  time 
accepted  their  Pope  from  their  nation.  St. 
Katherine  of  Siena,  for  example,  being  Italian, 
followed  the  Italian  Pope.     Each  of  the  two 


96     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

asserted  that  he  was  the  only  true  Pope  and 
that  his  rival  was  Antichrist.  Here  was  an 
anticipation  of  the  future.  Each  had  his  own 
Inquisition,  at  whose  hands  the  supporters 
of  the  other  need  expect  little  mercy,  though, 
the  dominions  of  the  two  being  separate, 
there  was  little  actual  danger ;  and  each 
regarded  war  against  a  kingdom  which 
supported  the  other  as  a  Crusade.  Every 
religious  order  had  two  organizations  which 
repudiated  each  other,  and  England  had  a 
further  reason  for  refusing  to  allow  monastic 
rents  to  pass  into  France,  where  they  would 
support  an  Antichrist.  The  schism  was 
complete. 

There  was  little  to  choose  between  the 
two  dynasties.  The  courts  of  Rome  and 
Avignon  were  equally  corrupt  and  mercenary, 
but  the  Popes  of  the  latter  were  of  a  higher 
type  than  those  of  the  former.  Yet  though 
the  faults  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs,  whom 
England  accepted,  were  glaring,  the  struggle 
was  too  keen  for  either  party  to  put  its  worst 
men  forward.  Things  only  came  to  their 
worst  when,  under  pressure  from  the  govern- 
ments and  from  public  opinion,  the  cardinals 
on  both  sides  had  agreed  to  throw  over  their 
Popes  and  start  afresh.  The  second  election 
under  this  new   system   was   that   of   John 


IViEDI^VAL    SYSTEM  9f 

XXIII.,  a  man  as  scandalous  as  the  worst 
of  the  Renaissance  Popes,  who  had  for  very 
shame  to  be  deposed  in  1415.  Apart  from 
the  generally  demoralizing  influence  of  the 
schism  (for  it  is  clear  that  high  English 
ecclesiastics  paid  the  Roman  court  the  flattery 
of  imitation,  even  though  it  were  at  a  discreet 
interval)  the  chief  result  in  each  kingdom 
was  that  of  increased  exactions.  They  had, 
in  fact,  to  be  doubled,  for  each  Pope  had 
to  maintain  his  whole  state  and  retinue  of 
officials  from  the  contributions  of  half  Chris- 
tendom. There  had  been  few  scruples  before  ; 
there  were  none  now. 

This  further  scandal  of  the  divided  Papacy 
led  Wyclif  on  to  more  radical  thoughts. 
If  two  Popes,  why  not  none  ?  Was  a  supreme 
and  irresponsible  Pope  a  necessary  part 
of  the  Christian  system.  ?  And  was  the 
current  theology  sound  ?  He  answered  these 
questions  in  a  revolutionary  sense.  The 
mediaeval  view  of  the  Eucharist,  upon  which 
the  power  of  the  priesthood  rested,  and  which 
was  to  the  general  mind  the  most  impressive 
point  of  faith  and  practice,  he  repudiated  as 
idolatry,  and  with  it  the  whole  discipline  of 
confession,  absolution  and  excommunication. 
He  taught  that  there  is  but  one  order  of  the 
ministry,  and  one  source  of  sacred  knowledge, 

G 


08     THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

the  Bible,  which  every  good  man  can  interpret 
for  himself.  The  first  English  Bible,  trans- 
lated from  the  Latin  Vulgate,  is  Wyclif's 
great  glory.  But  the  power  of  the  English 
hierarchy  was  too  strong  for  him.  His 
doctrine  was  officially  condemned,  his  Uni- 
versity, Avhich  tried  to  uphold  him,  was 
humiliated  and  its  teachers  forced  to  recant. 
Wyclif  himself  was  allowed  to  retire  to  his 
parish  of  Lutterworth,  where  he  taught 
unmolested,  and  died  peaceably  in  1384. 
His  followers,  the  "  poor  priests,"  spread  his 
doctrine  throughout  England,  spiced  often 
with  a  communism  that  seized  upon  the 
imagination  of  the  peasantry,  but  of  which 
Wyclif  was  not  an  advocate.  Soon  the  house 
of  Lancaster  came  to  the  throne,  weak,  and 
largely  dependent  on  clerical  support,  as 
the  price  of  which  a  statute  for  the  burning  of 
heretics  was  enacted  in  1401.  It  was  a  new 
thing,  for  heresy  and  its  punishment  had  been 
almost  unknown  in  the  nation  ;  but  it  was 
not  such  an  innovation  as  the  establishment 
of  the  Papal  Inquisition  would  have  been. 
There  were  many  sufferers,  and  many  more 
who  recanted.  Though  the  Lollards,  as 
Wyclif's  followers  were  called,  gradually 
dwindled  down  to  an  obscure  sect,  they  were 
not    exterminated ;     trials    of    Lollards    had 


IMEDIiEVAL    SYSTEM  99 

not  ceased  when  trials  of  Lutherans  began, 
and  undoiibtedl}^  Wyclif's  teaching  had  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  Reformation. 

If  this  direct  attack  upon  the  mediajval 
system  failed,  an  official  and  indirect  attack 
had  a  certain  success.  Clergy  discontented 
with  the  Popes  had  been  suggesting  the  assem- 
bling of  a  General  Council  since  the  thirteenth 
century.  Such  a  Council  profoundly  influ- 
enced the  imagination.  In  the  Eastern  Church 
to  the  present  day  the  canons  of  the  old 
Oecumenical  Councils  are  regarded  as  having 
much  the  same  authority  as  the  Pope  has 
for  Roman  Catholics.  Councils  had  been 
an  exceptional  resource  in  great  emergencies, 
and  in  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  Schism  it 
seemed  that  an  occasion  had  arisen  that  could 
be  provided  for  in  no  other  way.  There 
must  be  found  an  authoritative  voice  of 
Christendom  that  could  silence  the  contend- 
ing Popes.  The  personal  part  of  the  work 
was  accomplished,  but  the  three  famous 
Councils  of  Pisa,  Constance  and  Basel,  in 
all  of  which  England  was  represented,  broke 
down  when  it  came  to  practical  reform. 
There  was  obstruction,  due  to  vested  inter- 
ests ;  there  were  also  national  disagreements 
in  these  cosmopolitan  assemblies.  But  their 
failure   was   an   object-lesson   which  showed 


100  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

that  reform  could  best  be  worked  out  within 
the  single  nation,  and  they  furnished  an  ideal 
which  was  constantly  though  vainly  to  be 
before  the  minds  of  the  reformers  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

The  new  series  of  Popes,  firmly  established 
on  their  throne  and  hampered  by  no  restric- 
tions, outdid  their  predecessors.  It  is  needless 
to  do  more  than  allude  to  the  morals  of  Rome 
during  the  century  which  preceded  Luther. 
Their  ecclesiastical  administration  was  cynical. 
Martin  V.,  the  first  of  the  line,  appointed  his 
nephew,  aged  fourteen,  to  the  Archdeaconry 
of  Canterbury,  one  of  the  most  important 
and  lucrative  offices  in  the  English  Church. 
Nine  years  later  the  nephew  resigned  it, 
receiving  in  exchange  a  pension  for  life, 
which  seems  to  have  been  simoniacal,  though 
the  Pope  could  legalise  it.  This,  like  many 
similar  transactions  in  regard  to  bishoprics 
as  well  as  other  benefices,  was  in  defiance  of 
English  legislation.  But  successive  kings, 
in  agreement  with  the  Popes,  nullified  the 
law ;  the  King  nominated,  or  allowed  the 
Pope  to  nominate,  and  the  Papal  "  provision," 
or  deed  of  appointment,  was  accepted  without 
demur,  since  it  coincided  with  the  royal 
intention.  Li  the  fourteenth  century  laws  of 
increasing  stringency  were  passed  to  check 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  101 

Papal  interference  with  English  preferments 
and  with  English  lawsuits,  but  with  little 
success. 

These  laws  were  an  evidence  of  the  unpopu- 
larity of  the  higher  clergy,  which  was  further 
shown  by  suggestions  that  there  should  be 
a  sweeping  confiscation  of  Church  property. 
But  this  tide  of  feeling  even  among  the  ortho- 
dox, rendered  more  formidable  as  it  was  by 
the  popularity  of  novel  doctrines,  only  caused 
the  bishops  to  cling  more  closely  to  the 
Popes.  They  felt  that  the  existing  system 
must  stand  or  fall  as  a  whole,  and  were  con- 
scious of  the  value  of  the  impressive  doctrine 
of  Papal  supremacy  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  established  order.  The  occupation  of 
bishoprics  by  the  younger  sons  of  the  great 
families,  often  promoted  with  little  regard 
to  their  fitness  and  sometimes  at  an  uncan- 
onical  age,  was  a  complaisance  of  the  Popes 
which  became  common  towards  the  end  of 
the  middle  ages.  Quite  thirty  bishops  of 
this  class  held  office  during  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries.  Though  alien  bishops 
were  not  very  numerous,  three  in  succession 
held  Worcester  from  1497  to  1535 ;  their 
appropriate  successor  was  Hugh  Latimer. 
For  one  year  (1521-1522)  the  future  Pope 
Clement  VII.,  with  whom  Henry  VIII.  subse- 


102  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

qiiently  quarrelled,  held  Worcester  as  an  un- 
secrated  "  administrator  "  ;  i.e.,  the  income 
was  transmitted  to  Italy  on  his  behalf. 
Meanwhile  the  general  respect  for  the  office 
was  disappearing.  In  the  same  two  centuries 
an  archbishop  and  three  bishops  perished  at 
the  hand  of  mobs,  and  Henry  IV.,  allied  as 
he  was  with  the  hierarchy,  had  no  scruple 
about  beheading  an  archbishop  of  York  for 
treason.  Three  aliens,  who  were  promptly 
dispossessed,  held  English  bishoprics  at  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII. 's  breach  with  the  Pope. 
But  if  bishops  were  unpopular,  their  chief 
officers  were  detested.  The  most  conspicuous 
duty  of  the  archdeacon  was  disciplinary.  It 
was  his  business  not  only  to  prove  wills,  with 
fees  and  duties  from  which  he  made  large 
profit,  but  to  correct  sins.  This  latter  function 
made  his  office  one  with  cure  of  souls.  It 
could  be  executed  by  deputy,  and  always  was 
so  when  the  archdeacon  was  an  absentee  ; 
archdeaconries  were  favourite  gifts  of  the 
Popes  to  their  Italian  friends  and  servants. 
In  theory  the  purpose  of  their  courts  was 
the  correction  of  sins  ;  offenders  had  therefore 
to  be  sought  out  for  their  good.  Hence  the 
employment  of  the  summoner,  one  of  the 
ugliest  figures  of  the  age.  He  passed  through 
the  district  in  advance  of  his  master,  seeking 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  103 

whom  he  might  report  for  slander,  incon- 
tinence or  other  faults.  His  opportunities 
were  obvious  ;  a  bribe  would  silence  him 
if  a  man  of  any  means  were  the  culprit. 
For  humbler  folk  there  was  public  trial  in 
church,  w^th  a  shocking  sentence  of  being- 
scourged  so  many  times  round  the  walls  of 
the  church,  which  was  regularly  commuted 
for  some  small  fine,  such  as  sixpence.  The 
Scotland  of  Burns  offers  a  very  faint  survival 
of  this  mediaeval  abuse. 

The  monks  were  a  decaying  body,  both  in 
discipline,  in  numbers  and  in  prosperity.  When 
there  were  few  openings  in  life  for  young  men, 
it  was  usual  for  families  of  moderate  estate 
to  give  a  younger  son  to  a  monastery.  It 
was  a  favour  to  the  house,  which  could  not 
dispense  with  recruits,  and  it  relieved  the 
family  of  a  burden.  Enthusiasm  was  unlikely 
in  a  monastery  so  replenished  ;  the  life  was 
a  career,  like  another,  and  relaxation  was 
enjoyed  in  such  ways  as  it  could  be  had. 
With  nunneries  the  case  was  the  same,  save 
that  it  was  quite  common  to  pay  the  house 
a  lump  sum  to  take  charge  of  the  daughter. 
The  life  was  normally  respectable,  though 
there  were  scandals,  but  the  houses  were 
isolated  and  neither  occasional  visitations 
by  bishops  or  legates  or  by  heads  of  other 


104  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

houses  within  the  Order  could  do  much  to 
remedy  the  stagnation.  One  example  of 
the  growth  of  ease  may  suffice.  The  Cis- 
tercian Order  reached  England  early  in  the 
twelfth  century.  A  feature  of  its  very  stern 
rule  was  that  meat  or  fat  might  not  be  cooked 
or  eaten  within  the  walls.  Two  centuries  later 
the  breach  of  this  law  was  so  general  that  it 
even  received  Papal  sanction.  But  the  writ- 
ten rule  remained,  and  the  monks  now  built 
a  second  kitchen  and  a  second  dining-hall 
under  other  names  that  it  might  be  observed 
in  the  letter.  By  this  innocent  subterfuge 
they  could  still  say  that  in  their  kitchen  and 
refectory  meat  and  fat  were  unknown. 

Though  there  were  a  few  new  foundations, 
largely  endowed,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the 
property  of  alien  priories,  the  number  of 
monasteries  was  steadily  diminishing  for 
more  than  a  century  before  the  general 
Dissolution,  and  also  the  number  of  inmates 
in  those  which  survived.  Openings  in  the 
world  had  increased,  and  willingness  to  enter 
"  religion  "  diminished.  If  the  great  houses 
were  at  a  loss  to  find  inmates,  the  smaller 
were  half,  and  more  than  half,  empty, 
and  even  in  the  fifteenth  century  some 
were  quite  derelict.  The  wisdom  of  founders 
led  them  to  prefer  colleges   at  Oxford  and 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  105 

Cambridge  as  the  objects  of  their  generosity, 
and  the  weaker  monasteries  were  a  welcome 
resource.  So  Bishop  Waynflete,  the  founder 
of  Magdalen  at  Oxford,  in  1458  got  Papal  per- 
mission to  annex  Selborne  Priory,  an  almost 
empty  house  of  Austin  Canons,  and  in  1496 
Bishop  Alcock  turned  the  Benedictine  Nun- 
nery of  St.  Radegund  at  Cambridge,  which 
had  fallen  into  ill  repute,  into  Jesus  College. 
The  process  went  on  more  boldly  as  time 
advanced.  The  Lady  Margaret  obtained 
several  religious  houses  for  her  two  colleges 
at  Cambridge ;  Cardinal  Wolsey  got  leave 
to  suppress  no  fewer  than  twenty-two  for  his 
foundation  at  Oxford,  and  Henry  VIII. 
followed  in  the  same  path.  Though  he 
dissipated  Wolsey's  original  endowment,  he 
re-endowed  Christ  Church  with  monastic 
lands  and  churches,  and  the  great  Abbey 
of  St.  Mary  at  York  was  the  chief  source  from 
which  he  endowed  Trinity  College,  Cam.bridge. 
The  cause  of  the  decay  of  the  religious  houses 
was  in  part  financial.  Some  of  the  greatest, 
especially  St.  Alban's,  had  never  been  ade- 
quately endowed.  They  had  great  expenses, 
and  were  expected  to  maintain  a  lavish 
hospitality.  This  was  possible  till  the  friars 
attracted  the  public  mind  and  drew  off  the 
large,    though   irregular,    income   from   gifts 


106  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  burials  by  which  they  had  been  in  part 
supported.  Furthermore,  founders  and  their 
representatives — in  the  case  of  the  great 
monasteries  almost  always  the  Crown,  either 
through  foundation  or  through  the  extinction 
or  forfeiture  of  the  founder's  family — had  a 
claim  upon  the  houses.  This  took  the  form 
of  saddling  them  with  pensions  called  "  corro- 
dies,"  often  for  worn-out  servants  but  also 
for  officials  of  the  highest  rank.  For  instance, 
Sir  Thomas  More,  Lord  Chancellor,  had  a 
pension  out  of  Glastonbury.  This  strain 
upon  their  finances,  and  perhaps  also  an 
unbusinesslike  administration,  forced  the  mon- 
asteries to  be  hard  landlords.  They  could 
not  afford  to  be  generous.  No  incident  is 
commoner  in  their  later  history  than  riots 
of  their  tenantry  against  them,  often  very 
destructive,  and  sternly  suppressed.  There 
was,  then,  little  sympathy  felt  for  them  ;  their 
state  was  not  unlike  that  of  the  unreformed 
Colleges  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge  before  the 
days  of  Royal  Commissions.  There  was  also 
discontent  within.  In  England  as  on  the 
Continent  the  authors  of  the  Reformation 
were  for  the  most  part  regular  clergy,  monks 
or  friars.  The  Elizabethan  Archbishop  Whit- 
gift  said  that  he  learned  his  principles  from 
bis  uncle,  Abbot  of  Wellow  in  Lincolnshire, 


MEDIAEVAL    SYSTEM  107 

under  whom  he  began  his  education.  In  fact, 
what  earnestness  there  was  in  the  convents 
must  have  largely  taken  the  form  of  inward 
revolt  before  the  Dissolution,  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  a  multitude  of  the  less 
earnest  were  quite  willing,  when  the  suppres- 
sion came,  to  take  their  pension  and  be  free. 
There  was,  however,  one  small  and  austere 
Order,  that  of  the  Carthusians,  which,  when 
the  time  of  trial  came,  was  unanimously 
ready  to  suffer  rather  than  deny  its  allegiance 
to  Rome. 

The  friars  were  in  even  a  worse  case  than 
the  monks.  Their  need  of  money  demoralised 
them,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
Chaucer's  picture  of  the  wandering  "  lymy- 
tours "  does  them  substantial  justice.  It 
must  be  at  any  time  difficult  for  a  professional 
collector,  whose  success  is  inevitably  measured 
in  terms  of  money,  to  preserve  delicacy  of 
feeling  ;  it  is  no  w^onder  that  in  a  coarse  and 
credulous  age  impudence  and  imposture  were 
prevalent  in  the  class,  which  in  its  turn  infected 
the  remainder  of  the  Order.  But  here  again 
there  was  one  small  body  resolved  at  any  cost 
to  be  true  to  its  convictions.  The  Franciscans, 
the  most  enthusiastic  and  sometimes  the 
least  balanced  of  the  Mendicants,  were  early 
divided    between    those    who    observed    and 


108  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

those  who  neglected  the  founder's  strict  rule 
of  poverty.  The  latter  became  dominant, 
and  comfortable  houses,  maintained  to  some 
extent  by  dubious  means,  became  their 
dwelling  instead  of  the  rude  lodging  of  their 
predecessors.  A  more  conspicuous  departure 
from  the  rule  was  the  wearing  of  shoes,  in 
contravention  of  St.  Matthew,  x.  10.  All 
this  raised  protests  within  the  Order,  and 
the  struggle  ended  in  the  recognition  in  1414 
of  the  "  Observant "  Franciscans  as  an 
Order  distinct  from  the  original  or  "  Con- 
ventual "  body.  The  Observants  had  some 
few  establishments  in  England,  and  in  their 
last  days  resisted  Henry  VIII.  as  bravely  as 
the  Carthusians  were  doing. 

In  the  age  of  decay,  when  bishops,  monks 
and  friars  were  in  the  main  losing  the  respect 
of  the  nation,  and  when  as  an  even  worse 
symptom,  the  "  pardoners,"  or  hawkers  of 
indulgences,  were  pervading  England,  the 
parish  clergy  first  stand  forth  as  the  best 
representatives  of  religion.  We  cannot  say 
this  of  the  secular  clergy  as  a  whole.  The 
bishops  ordained  far  too  many  priests,  and 
multitudes  lived  precarious  and  often  dis- 
orderly lives,  with  little  more  employment 
than  that  of  singing  funeral  masses  for  four- 
pence  after  some  rich  man's  death.     Great 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  109 

importance  was  attached  to  the  multiplication 
of  these  services  ;  wills  provide  for  a  thousand 
masses  to  be  said  on  one  day,  or  for  chaplains 
to  be  hired  to  say  a  mass  each  every  day  for 
a  year ;  or  else  permanent  chantries  were 
endowed  without  pastoral  duty,  though  fairly 
often  the  chaplain  chose  to  teach  boys,  or 
was  even  expected  to  do  so.  But  chantry 
priests,  like  the  multitude  attached  to  cathe- 
dral or  collegiate  or  monastic  churches — the 
larger  monasteries  had  many  small  endow- 
ments for  the  purpose — were  not  a  very  satis- 
factory class.  The  wealth  lavished  by  the 
laity  on  their  parish  churches  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  the  period  of  Perpendi- 
cular architecture,  shows  Avhither  the  affection 
of  the  people  had  turned.  Great  churches 
were  built,  especially  in  the  eastern  counties, 
which  bore  no  more  relation  to  the  number 
of  parishioners  than  did  the  cathedrals  to  the 
population  of  little  medieval  towns.  All  the 
arts  of  the  time  were  employed  in  sculpture 
and  painting,  in  woodwork  and  alabaster 
and  in  coloured  windows.  The  splendour  of 
the  result,  of  which  little  but  the  architecture 
remains  to-day,  marks  the  esteem  cherished 
for  the  parish  priest.  When  men  honoured 
monks  and  friars  they  built  for  them  ;  now 
it  was  for  the  clergy,  who  would  not  have  been 


110  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

so  favoured  had  they  not  in  great  measure 
been  such  as  Chaucer's  "  poor  parson  of  a 
town."  We  need  not  take  the  })overty  too 
strictly :  there  were  good  Hvings  as  well  as 
bad,  then  as  now.  The  point  to  be  marked 
is  that  the  parson  is  the  religious  leader  of 
his  parish,  and  no  longer  the  mere  performer 
of  religious  rites.  He  has  taken  the  place 
which  he  still  retains.  No  wonder  that  the 
rich  men  of  the  parish  prefer  to  adorn  their 
church  rather  than  some  religious  house 
elsewhere,  and  that  guilds  in  which  all  classes 
join  are  formed  to  worship  together  and  to 
contribute  towards  the  splendour  of  its 
service.  It  was  natural  also  that,  in  an  age 
when  the  representative  idea  was  fixed  in  the 
public  mind,  this  general  support  of  the  parish 
church  should  be  supervised  by  representative 
churchwardens.  They  first  appear  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  though  the  funds 
they  administered  were  for  the  most  part 
voluntary  gifts,  there  are  early  instances  of 
those  compulsory  church  rates  which  became 
universal  under  the   Tudors. 

The  social  position  of  the  parish  clergy 
varied  greatly.  A  comfortable  rectory  in 
the  gift  of  a  landlord  was  likely  to  be  occupied 
by  one  of  his  family  ;  and  it  has  been  noted 
how,  as  rectories  fell  into  the  hands  of  mon- 


MEDIEVAL    SYSTEM  111 

asteries  and  were  converted  into  vicarages, 
the  names  of  the  new  incumbents  are  apt 
to  show  a  lowering  of  their  status.  But  now 
for  the  first  time  on  a  large  scale  there  appears 
a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  laity  to  remedy 
this  impoverishment  of  the  livings  by  fresh 
endowments.  It  was  the  more  necessary 
because  the  monasteries  persisted  in  their 
policy  of  appropriation.  Many  vicarages 
were  instituted  even  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Dissolution,  and  had  not  the 
process  been  abruptly  stopped  it  would  doubt- 
less have  become  as  complete  as  it  was  in 
France  before  the  Revolution,  where  the  parish 
clergy  were  almost  all  the  humblest  of  peas- 
ants, and  their' s  a  career  upon  which  no  man 
of  position  or  education  would  dream  of 
entering.  In  fine,  we  may  say  that  in  spite 
of  many  absentees  and  licensed  pluralists,  the 
parish  clergy  of  England  in  the  generations 
before  the  Reformation  were  the  salt  of  the 
English  Church. 

The  last  feature  of  these  two  centuries  that 
need  be  mentioned  is  another  proof  of  a 
heightened  regard  for  the  secular  clergy.  It 
is  the  foundation  of  Collegiate  churches,  of 
which  some,  such  as  Manchester  and  Windsor, 
were  on  a  magnificent  scale,  though  the  great 
foundation   of  Henry  VI.   is  an  instance  of 


112  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

economical  endowment.  Broad  lands  in  Dor- 
set which  had  belonged  since  Alfred's  time  to 
Shaftesbury  were  diverted  to  this  new  pur- 
pose ;  and  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  nuns 
of  Shaftesbury  could  afford  to  lose  them.  But, 
unhappily,  these  Collegiate  churches,  though 
to  a  less  degree  in  England  than  in  Scotland, 
were  often  supported  out  of  rectorial  tithes, 
and  so  were  another  cause  of  poverty  to  the 
working  clergy.  And  the  canonries  in  them, 
as  in  cathedral  churches,  were  very  apt  to 
be  held  in  plurality  by  absentees.  Hence 
they  were  not  an  unmixed  blessing  to  the 
Church,  as  the  Colleges  founded  in  the  Uni- 
versities, the  teaching  staff  of  which  in  prac- 
tice, if  not  quite  always  in  theory,  consisted 
of  secular  clergy,  undoubtedly  were.  But 
the  choice  by  founders  of  these  two  types 
of  benefaction  show  that  the  secula,rs  were 
now  finally  superior  to  the  regular  clergy  in 
the  general  regard 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE    REFORMATION 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  becom- 
ing clear  that  the  Middle  Age  was  passing 
away.  New  forces  and  new  thoughts  were 
becoming  dominant,  and  nowhere  would  they 
work  greater  change  than  in  the  Church  of 
England.  But  its  structure  was  to  survive 
the  shock.  Constitutionally  it  was  made 
up  of  an  indefinite  number  of  bodies  and 
individuals,  holding  certain  rights  and  proper- 
ties to  which  corresponding  duties  were 
attached.  The  Church  itself  had  no  property 
whatever,  either  directly  owned  or  held  in 
trust  on  its  behalf.  But  it  had  a  true  unity 
imperfectly  expressed  in  its  organization,  of 
which  unity  it  was  very  conscious.  It  also 
had  a  strong  and  venerable  position  in  the 
State.  Its  bishops  and  many  of  its  abbots 
sat  as  peers,  and  formed  the  majority  of  the 
Upper  House  ;  it  was  an  estate  of  the  realm, 
taxing  itself  and  enjoying  considerable  powers 
of  legislation  ;  and,  what  was  equally  im- 
n  113 


114  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

portant  for  the  future,  its  rights  of  property 
Avere  rooted  in  the  land  and  therefore  were 
defended  by  the  Common  Law.  Patronage 
had  grown  out  of  the  lordship  of  land,  glebe 
was  land,  tithe  was  produced  by  land.  All 
rights  and  wrongs  concerning  these  had  to  be 
discussed  in  the  King's  courts,  and  the 
immemorial  tendency  of  those  courts  was  to 
protect  the  freeholder. 

The  Church  was  also  national  in  the  sense 
that  the  public  conscience  required  every 
man  to  adhere  to  it  and  attend  its  worship. 
Heresy  was  a  sin  for  which  few  thought  that 
death  was  too  severe  a  penalty.  But,  being 
national,  it  was  still  bound  to  the  Papacy  by 
the  theory,  as  yet  undisputed,  of  the  right 
relation  of  national  churches  to  the  Pope. 
Yet  the  very  fact  that  the  Churches  of  England, 
and  of  all  the  great  nations  of  the  West,  now 
regarded  themselves  as  national  was  evidence 
that  a  new  relation  must  be  devised  between 
them  and  the  centre  at  Rome.  Now,  Rome 
being  what  Rome  was  in  the  age  of  the  Re- 
naissance, reform  was  imperative  and  the 
initiative  had  to  be  taken  by  the  lay  power, 
for  the  Popes  and  their  courts  were  quite 
content  to  remain  as  they  were.  So  in  Spain 
there  was  a  thorough  and  deeply  conservative 
reform   imposed   upon    the    national  Church 


THE    REFORIVIATION  115 

by  the  monarchs,  after  which  they  insisted, 
sternly  though  respectfully,  that  Rome  should 
reform  itself.  The  purification  of  Rome  was 
the  work  of  Spanish  kings,  using  their 
dominions  in  Italy  as  a  menace  which  the 
Popes  dared  not  disregard.  France  proceeded 
on  a  different  line.  Nowhere  had  the  Popes 
been  more  interfering ;  now  they  were 
treated  not  as  an  integral  part  of  the  French 
system,  but  as  an  alien  power  mth  whom 
an  agreement,  a  concordat,  may  be  made. 
The  King  allows  the  Pope  certain  privileges, 
in  return  for  which  he  stipulates  that  there 
shall  be  no  meddling  from  Rome  with  the 
ecclesiastical  matters  which  the  State  reserves 
for  itself.  Control  over  the  Pope  and  a  treaty 
with  him  w^ere  both  of  them  devices  that 
might  be  regarded  as  consistent  with  the 
mediaeval  system,  though  they  were  hard  to 
reconcile  with  the  full  Papal  claims.  Was  a 
third  policy,  that  of  ignoring  the  Pope  and 
yet  maintaining  mediaeval  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline, any  less  consistent  with  the  past  ? 
Could  a  kingdom  be  catholic  on  those  terms  ? 
Henry  VIII.  was  to  make  the  experiment. 

But  in  Germany  a  more  drastic  procedure 
had  been  adopted.  There  Christianity  showed 
both  in  better  and  in  w^orse  aspects  than  in 
England.     There  was  a  true  and  widespread 


116  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

personal  religion,  both  among  those  who 
joined  and  those  who  resisted  the  movement 
of  Luther.  On  the  other  hand,  nowhere  were 
scandals  more  flagrant  among  the  higher 
clergy,  and  that  with  Papal  encouragement. 
An  astonishing  pluralist  w^as  Albert  of  Branden- 
burg, to  one  of  whose  dioceses  Luther  belonged. 
At  twenty-three,  having  none  but  secular 
interests  and  those  of  a  gross  kind,  he  received 
the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg  and  a  bishopric 
as  well ;  next  year  he  received  in  addition 
the  greatest  German  see,  that  of  Mainz, 
paying  heavily  for  the  sanction  of  Pope  Leo 
X.  The  transaction  was  concealed  under 
the  form  of  the  purchase  of  an  indulgence 
issued  by  the  Pope  ;  i.e.,  the  Pope,  in  return 
for  a  lump  sum,  allowed  Albert  to  take  his 
chance  of  making  a  profit  by  retailing  copies 
of  the  indulgence  among  the  people  of  his  two 
provinces.  The  trade  was  carried  out  by 
"  pardoners,"  such  as  Chaucer  has  described, 
who  employed  the  methods  of  the  cheap  jack 
to  pass  off  their  wares.  The  object  of  the 
Pope  was  to  pay  for  the  rebuilding  of  St. 
Peter's  ;  it  cost  him  and  his  successors  Nor- 
thern Europe,  for  it  excited  Luther's  protest, 
the  burning  of  the  Papal  bull  on  October  31, 
1517. 

That  Germany  was  ripe  for  change  is  clear 


THE    REFORMATION  117 

from  his  instantaneous  and  peaceful  success. 
Within  a  few  years  prince  after  prince  had 
disowned  the  Pope,  and  estabHshed  a  new 
church  on  Luther's  Hues  in  his  dominions,  and 
the  example  was  quickly  followed  by  the 
Scandinavian  kingdoms.  The  problem  of 
government  for  these  new  churches  was  a 
grave  one.  It  was  hopeless  to  look  to  Rome, 
which  to  all  appearance  was  incorrigible.  A 
generation  was  to  pass  before  any  serious 
attempt  should  be  made  at  reform  in  that 
quarter.  The  only  other  resource  was  the 
princes,  and  Germany  was  already  familiar 
with  reasoning  which  gave  supreme  authority 
to  the  prince.  To  the  princes,  then,  Luther 
appealed,  and  they  were  not  loth  to  listen. 
As  the  highest  authority,  they  were  entitled 
to  annex  the  domains  of  bishops  and  abbots, 
and  they  justified  their  claim  by  establishing, 
after  Luther's  plan,  an  orderly  system  of  paro- 
chial preachers,  over  whom  they  set  "  super- 
intendents," sometimes  called  "  bishops," 
the  head  of  the  whole  local  system  being  the 
prince.  The  German  Emperor  to  this  day, 
as  King  of  Pi-ussia,  claims  the  "  summepis- 
kopat  "  over  his  communion  in  his  dominions. 
Luther's  sole  interest  was  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  personal  religion  and  of  doctrines 
which  he  thought  were  true.     The  Church, 


118  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

to  his  mind,  existed  merely  for  these  purposes  ; 
he  was  indifferent  to  the  Church  as  such,  and 
to  history.  He  might  easily  have  secured 
continuity  with  the  past,  for  bishops  were 
among  his  supporters,  but  he  did  not  think  it 
worth  while.  But  he  was  resolute  for  the 
thorough  execution  of  his  plan.  The  prince, 
he  taught,  who  had  the  Divine  authority  to 
establish  a  church  had  also  the  right  to  use 
the  sword  to  enforce  obedience.  No  one 
might  preach  without  official  licence,  and  no 
one  abstain  from  attendance  at  the  lawful 
worship. 

Such  was  the  system  established  through- 
out Northern  Germany,  and  advocated  in 
books  which  found  their  way  to  England, 
and  were  eagerly  read  in  the  English  Uni- 
versities. It  Avas  the  doctrinal  opposition  to 
Rome  that  attracted  men  there  ;  but  states- 
men could  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  a 
system  of  church  government  based  on  the 
right  of  the  Sovereign  was  working  success- 
fully a  few  hours  from  our  shores.  Henry  was 
in  doctrine  a  convinced  mediaevalist ;  but  a 
strife  which  was  discreditable  to  all  engaged 
in  it  save  the  unfortunate  Queen  Katherine 
drew  him  into  a  position  which  could  not  be 
reconciled  with  any  recognition  of  the  Pope's 
authority.     If  the  King  was  to  have  his  way, 


THE    REFORMATION  119 

it  could  only  be  by  asserting  that  England 
was  self-contained  as  a  religious  community 
and  complete  in  itself.  If  it  were  so,  if  the 
centre  of  English  religious  life  lay  within  the 
circumference  and  not  outside  it  at  Rome, 
who  was  the  human  head  of  the  Church  ?  It 
could  be  no  one  but  the  King,  and  the  justi- 
fication of  the  claim  could  be  only  that  imperial 
line  of  argument  which  had  been  worked  out 
in  the  fourteenth  century  and  was  now  being 
displayed  in  action  on  German  soil. 

But  for  many  centuries  the  Popes  had 
enjoyed  in  practice  a  supreme  authority 
over  the  English  Church,  as  over  the  rest  of 
their  communion.  That  authority  might  be 
justified  in  two  ways  ;  either  as  a  matter  of 
principle,  the  Pope  being  taken,  as  he  claimed 
to  be,  for  the  representative  of  God  on  earth  ; 
or  else  as  being  the  exercise  of  a  number  of 
rights  conceded  to  him  by  overt  or  tacit 
sanction  of  the  Sovereign.  Henry  took  the 
latter  line,  and  argued  that  what  had  been 
granted  could  be  resumed.  It  was  resumed, 
first  by  the  submission  of  the  clergy  in  1582, 
confirmed  by  Parliament  in  1534,  and  then 
by  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  also  in  1534.  These 
documents  do  not  profess  to  make  the  King 
"  the  only  supreme  head  in  earth  of  the 
Church   of   England,"   but   provide   that   he 


120  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

shall  be  "  taken,  accepted  and  reputed  "  as' 
such,  and  therefore  arrange  for  a  new  system, 
legislative  and  judicial,  that  shall  fill  the  gap 
made  by  the  withdrawal  of  his  powers  from 
the  Pope.  It  was  a  new  thing  to  part  from 
Rome  ;  but  the  royal  supremacy,  now  em- 
phasised, was  as  old  as  English  kingship. 
The  King  had  always  been  supreme  over  all 
his  subjects,  clergy  and  laity,  and  over  all 
their  affairs. 

Neither  Henry  nor  his  subjects  dreamed 
that  a  new  Church  was  being  established. 
The  old  Church,  its  clergy,  its  rites  and 
revenues  went  on  as  before.  Into  the  last 
a  grave  inroad  was  made  when  by  surrender, 
attainder  and  parliamentary  suppression  the 
monasteries  disappeared.  Yet  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  monks  were  steadily 
encroaching  on  the  parish  clergy,  and  that  with 
the  suppression  the  turning  of  comfortable 
rectories  into  poor  vicarages  came  to  an  end. 
But  a  multitude  of  clergy  who  had  been  paid 
to  sing  services  in  monastic  churches  now 
lost  their  work,  and  the  number  of  the  unem- 
ployed was  also  increased  by  all  the  regulars 
who  had  to  eke  out  their  little  pensions  by 
such  clerical  work  as  they  could  get.  This 
superfluity  of  clergy  had  important  effects. 
It  emptied  the  Universities  by  deterring  young 


THE    RF:F0RMATI0N  121 

men  from  an  overcrowded  calling,  and  it 
ensured  that  for  a  generation  there  should 
be  a  majority  of  clergy  convinced  of  the 
older  views. 

All  this,  however,  did  not  affect  the  character 
of  the  Church.  A  Church,  or  a  nation  in  its 
religious  aspect,  does  not  lose  its  identity 
when  it  changes  some  of  its  views,  any 
more  than  a  philosopher  or  a  politician. 
And  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  change 
was  not  in  the  object,  but  in  some  of  the  acces- 
sories and  mechanisms  of  religion.  Nor 
must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  position  of  the 
Pope  had  been  rendered  doubtful  by  the 
conciliar  movement.  It  had  been  widely 
taught,  and  not  authoritatively  denied,  that 
a  Council  is  superior  to  the  Pope.  The 
world  might  have  been  quite  wrong  in  its 
subservience  to  him,  and  a  General  Council 
might  any  day  reconstruct  the  faith  and 
practice  of  Christendom.  It  was  no  assault 
on  an  uncontested  authority  when  Luther 
and  the  other  reformers  appealed  to  a  future 
Council  to  decide  between  them  and  the 
Pope,  and  when  Bonner,  the  future  Marian 
bishop,  appealed  to  the  same  tribunal  against 
Henry's  excommunication  by  Rome.  The 
supreme  government  of  the  Church  had  become 
an  open  question,  and  conservative  church- 


122  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

men  might  feel  justified  in  abstaining  from 
recognition  of  a  disputed  claim. 

After  the  severance  from  the  Pope  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  were  carried  on  with  increased 
decorum.  The  day  of  magnificent  pluralists 
was  over  ;  there  was  no  second  Wolsey,  with 
his  Renaissance  morals.  The  doctrine  incul- 
cated in  official  publications  and  enforced  by 
criminal  proceedings  under  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment was  quite  traditional,  and  if  there 
were  some  fluctuations  of  policy  they  came 
to  little.  Two  bishops  who  held  the  views 
that  were  coming  in  from  Germany  were 
forced  to  resign  their  sees  ;  one  of  them  was 
Latimer.  Deprivation  and  burning  were  often 
inflicted  on  teachers  of  the  new  doctrines. 
Most  of  the  leaders  in  the  future  Marian 
reaction  were  men  who  came  to  the  front 
under  Henry.  Gardiner,  Bonner  and  Tunstall 
were  among  his  bishops.  The  better  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  was  provided  for  by  six 
new  sees,  one  of  which,  Westminster,  was 
unfortunately  suppressed  under  Edward  VI.  ; 
but  they  were  so  poorly  endowed  that  it  is 
unjust  to  charge  their  occupants  with  pluralism 
for  holding  other  preferment  with  them.  Till 
the  nineteenth  century  it  was  a  necessity. 
We  can  hardly  regard  the  circulation  of  an 
English   Bible   and   the   introduction   of   an 


THE    REFORMATION  128 

English  litany  into  the  churches  as  revolu- 
tionary measures.  The  nearest  approach  to 
the  future  made  by  Henry  (save  the  great 
suppression,  with  which  some  proceedings  of 
the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  Papalist  as  he  was, 
are  comparable)  was  the  destruction  of  shrines 
and  images,  as  objects  of  superstition.  But 
this  was  in  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance  as 
much  as  in  that  of  the  Reformation;  with 
the  spread  of  the  temper  in  which  Erasmus 
had  visited  Canterbury  pilgrimages  would 
soon  have  ceased.  So  the  great  experiment  of 
conservative  churchmanship  without  the  Pope 
was  consistently  and  mercilessly  carried  out 
during  Henry's  life.  There  was  intellectual 
sincerity  on  his  part ;  moral  and  spiritual 
sincerity  also  in  the  better  men  who  co-oper- 
ated with  him.  But  the  experiment  was 
doomed  to  failure,  for  the  world  had  not  been 
standing  still.  Luther's  doctrine  had  spread 
in  England,  in  spite  of  burnings,  and  not 
Luther's  doctrine  only. 

Strange  exaggerations  of  teaching  had 
arisen  in  the  ferment  of  thought  that  he  had 
awakened  ;  but  however  the  new  preachers 
might  vary,  they  were  at  one  in  their  hatred 
of  Rome,  which  stood  in  their  eyes  for  the 
denial  of  Christianity.  From  the  Low  Coun- 
tries such  doctrine  passed  into  England,  and 


124  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

though  it  had  to  be  propagated  in  secret  it 
did  not  fail  to  spread.  But  Switzerland  was 
to  be  a  more  potent  influence.  Zwingli 
completed  his  drastic  reformation  of  Zurich 
before  1525.  Unlike  Luther,  he  wished  a 
complete  breach  with  the  past ;  for  him  noth- 
ing that  Scripture  did  not  command  was 
binding  on  a  Christian  man,  and  he  made  it 
his  business  to  strip  off  everything  in  worship 
and  belief  that  was  not  in  the  strictest  sense 
essential.  He  was  an  intellectualist,  with  a 
clear,  uncompromising  mind,  eager  to  rob 
religion,  especially  on  the  sacramental  side, 
of  all  that  was  mysterious.  His  teaching, 
bold  and  modern  and  as  it  seemed  progressive, 
was  to  have  considerable  influence  in  England, 
and  Bullinger,  his  successor,  was  to  be  an 
oracle  for  Elizabethan  bishops.  The  Reforma- 
tion on  Zwinglian  lines  not  only  spread 
through  the  greater  part  of  Switzerland  ;  it 
also  encroached  on  Lutheran  territory,  and  was 
the  one  form  of  revolt  from  Rome  in  France 
and  the  Netherlands.  Thus  England  was  sep- 
arated by  a  screen  of  "Reformed"  lands,  as 
they  were  technically  styled,  from  the  States 
which  were  "  Protestant  "  in  the  strict  sense, 
i.e.,   Lutheran. 

The  cleavage  between  Lutheran  and  Zwing- 
lian   was    profound,    and    in    1529    became 


THE    REFORMATION  125 

impassable.  It  was  one  not  only  in  specific 
doctrine,  especially  of  the  Eucharist,  but  in 
spirit.  It  was  conceivable  that  the  Lutherans 
might  revert  to  a  purified  and  conciliatory 
central  Church  ;  for  Zwinglians  it  was  impos- 
sible. Soon  the  Lutherans  came  to  regard 
themselves  as  in  a  certain  sense  allied  with 
Rome  against  the  latter,  and  when  English 
reformers  came  to  look  at  the  great  debate 
through  Zwinglian  eyes  they  too  were  alienated 
from  Lutheranism.  Finally  Calvin  arose  to 
give  its  final  shape  to  "  Reformed  "  thought. 
His  "  Institutes,"  the  textbook  of  his  school, 
first  appeared  in  1536,  six  years  before  the 
death  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  at  once  made  its 
influence  felt,  especially  through  its  great 
doctrine  of  Predestination,  as  opposed  to 
Free  Grace,  but  also  as  the  most  cogent  and 
logical  system  of  non-Roman  theology.  In 
1541  Calvin  made  himself  master  of  Geneva, 
which  became  the  model  community  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Reformed. 

The  Continental  movement  was  thus  tri- 
umphant and  its  leaders  were  rejoicing  in  the 
prospect  of  further  conquests  while  the  English 
Church  was  still  holding  firm  to  the  traditional 
system,  somewhat  simplified  and  purged,  and 
above  all  made  strictly  national.  In  the 
last  respect  it  agreed  with  all  the  successful 


120  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

movements  abroad.  Each  of  them  held  that 
the  State  for  rehgious  purposes  is  a  whole  ; 
all  its  members  must  hold  the  same  faith, 
follow  the  same  worship  and  discipline,  and 
be  protected  from  error.  This  principle  had 
been  taken  over  from  the  mediaeval  system, 
and  was  enforced  not  only  as  sound  in  itself, 
but  because  internal  unity  was  a  necessary 
protection  against  Rome.  There  was  no 
mercy  for  those  who  held  that  religion  is  a 
private  matter,  and  that  men  should  combine 
for  worship  with  those  who  agree  with  them. 
That  seemed  disintegration  of  the  State. 
But  heresy  was  also  as  repugnant  to  Reformers 
as  to  Romanists.  The  former  had  fewer 
temptations  and  opportunities  than  the  latter, 
but  a  fair  number  of  Anabaptists  suffered  in 
England  and  Zwingli  approved  when  the  men 
of  Zurich  drowned  one  of  them  in  their  lake, 
while  an  occasional  Unitarian  was  burnt  in 
England  from  Edward  VI.  to  James  I.,  after 
the  example  set  by  Calvin  in  the  case  of 
Servetus. 

Even  in  Henry's  days  the  leaven  had  been 
working  in  England.  Cranmer  was  peculi- 
arly susceptible  to  foreign  influences.  Loyal 
as  he  was  to  his  master's  ideal,  his  mental 
explanation  of  the  system  was  first  almost 
Lutheran,  and  then  almost  Zwinglian.    He  had 


THE    REFORMATION  127 

all  the  admiration  of  the  younger  men  for 
the  adventurous  theology  of  the  Continent, 
and  as  soon  as  the  King  was  dead  he  was 
busily  welcoming  its  representatives  to  Eng- 
land. They  came  from  all  quarters,  from 
Italy  and  Poland  as  well  as  from  Germany, 
and  were  of  all  shades  of  doctrine.  Bucer, 
a  Lutheran  who  was  almost  Zwinglian, 
became  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  at 
Cambridge,  and  Peter  Martyr,  an  Italian  of 
like  views,  received  the  same  office  at  Oxford  ; 
both  had  been  friars.  Bucer  soon  died,  but 
Peter  Martyr  lived  to  fly  from  England  at 
Mary's  accession,  and  to  exercise  a  strong 
influence  over  the  English  exiles  in  Germany. 
These  and  the  other  visitors  under  Edward 
found  English  thinkers  in  a  receptive  mood, 
with  little  respect  for  the  old  theology  and  little 
confidence  in  themselves.  It  may  be  said  that 
till  Hooker  arose,  they  made  no  contribution 
to  the  guidance  of  their  own  Church  ;  as  in 
later  days  Germany  has  been  regarded  as 
a  model  in  science  and  in  war,  so  then  were 
Germany  and  Switzerland  in  Christian  doc- 
trine. Not  only  was  weight  given  to  the 
counsel  of  the  foreigners  resident  in  England  ; 
matters  of  difficulty  were  referred  to  the 
leaders  abroad,  and  their  words  of  reproof 
or    encouragement    awaited    with    deference. 


128  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

The  more  the  revolting  churches  appreciated 
each  other,  the  more  did  they  emphasize 
their  common  repugnance  to  what  was  char- 
acteristic of  Rome.  This  centred  on  the 
doctrine  of  the  Eucharist.  Though  they 
differed  as  to  a  Real  Presence,  all  denied  a 
propitiatory  sacrifice,  and  all  w^ere  emphatic 
in  asserting  that  the  ancient  service  was  an 
antichristian  rite.  None  exceeded  some  of 
the  English  reformers,  such  as  Ridley,  and 
even  Cranmer  in  his  last  phase,  in  the  vehe- 
mence with  which  they  denounced  the  Mass. 
By  the  end  of  Edward  VI. 's  reign  it  seemed 
that  the  English  Church,  unchanged  in  struc- 
ture and  continuous  in  existence,  was  pledging 
itself  to  the  truth  of  the  more  radical  Swiss 
doctrines. 

But  in  two  matters  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance the  Swiss  friends  were  allowed  little 
influence.  The  hereditary  constitution  of  the 
Church,  both  in  relation  to  the  State  and  in 
the  manner  of  ordination  of  its  ministers,  was 
not  assimilated  to  the  Continental  models, 
and  the  genius  of  Cranmer — the  word  is  not 
too  strong — endowed  England  with  an  order 
of  service  adapted  from  the  old  Sarum  use 
and  rendered  into  perfect  English.  There 
was  foreign  influence,  but  in  this  case  it  was 
chiefly  Lutheran,  and  the  outcome  was  a  very 


THE    REFORMATION  129 

conservative  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  Avhich 
was  to  satisfy  the  great  majority  of  those 
who  held  with  Henry's  poHcy,  while  it  was 
not  intolerable  to  the  foreign  reformers, 
and  to  those  in  England  who  followed 
their  counsel.  It  was  only  the  extreme 
men  in  both  directions  who  were  to 
reject   it. 

The  whole  result  was  a  phase  of  the  Church 
in  which  it  ranked  as  one  of  a  number  equally 
orthodox,  and  equally  opposed  to  Rome. 
The  leaders  abroad  recognized  it  and  its 
ministry,  though  they  thought  its  reformation 
inferior  to  their  own  because  it  was  less 
thorough.  It  was  valid,  but  not  perfect. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  English  were  apt  to 
be  somewhat  apologetic  in  their  tone.  They 
had  done  their  best,  and  if  the  result  was 
below  the  achievement  of  Zurich,  still  it  was 
sufficient.  But  it  was  ominous  for  the 
future  that  even  in  the  second  half  of  Edward's 
reign,  when  an  extreme  policy  was  in  favour 
under  the  influence  of  Warwick,  John  Knox 
refused  to  be  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  the 
equally  austere  John  Hooper,  the  future 
martyr,  had  to  be  imprisoned  for  several 
weeks  before  he  would  accept  the  see  of 
Gloucester.  In  the  eyes  of  such  men  the 
English  Church  was  tainted  by  its  continuity 


130  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  usage,  and  it  was  sin,   or  almost  sin,  to 
acquiesce. 

But  such  views  were  never  to  be  dominant. 
What  might  have  befallen  had  Edward's 
reign  been  longer  than  six  years,  it  is  vain 
to  conjecture.  Towards  the  end  the  pace 
of  change  was  swift.  The  reign  of  Edward 
VI.  had  begun  with  a  moderate  policy. 
Change  was  inevitable,  but  communion  in 
both  kinds  and  leave  for  the  clergy  to  marry, 
both  of  which  were  demanded  by  Convocation 
and  granted  by  Parliament,  were  conciliatory 
measures  desired  by  many  opponents  of  the 
Reformation  on  the  Continent.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  the  first  Act  of  Uniformity  and 
the  first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  These 
aimed  at  unity  in  worship,  did  not  affect  belief, 
and  concerned  only  the  clergy.  But  soon 
the  conservative  bishops  suffered  deprivation, 
and  their  successors  pressed  onward.  London 
and  the  Eastern  Counties  were  with  them, 
the  North  and  West  were  hostile.  Ridley 
and  his  Dean  introduced  the  table,  set  in  the 
middle  of  the  chancel,  into  St.  Paul's  in  place 
of  the  altar,  and  such  an  example  was  widely 
followed.  But  a  stronger  force  than  episcopal 
control  or  example  was  that  of  local  feeling. 
Government  in  the  sixteenth  century  had 
no  machinery  of  its  own.     It  depended  on 


THE    REFORMATION  131 

the  magistrates  of  the  counties  ;  if  they  were 
of  the  reforming  spirit  any  excess  was  winked 
at ;  if  they  were  conservative,  the  old  services 
were  protected.  And  the  freehold  position 
of  the  clergy  was  as  strong  as  ever.  It  was 
difficult  to  deprive  them  in  any  case,  and  the 
machinery  of  the  episcopal  courts  was  out 
of  gear.  So,  in  spite  of  legislation,  there 
was  much  diversity,  and  it  cannot  have  been 
lessened  when,  after  three  years  of  the  first 
*  Prayer  Book,  the  second  was  sanctioned  in 
1552.  Though  in  substance  it  was  the  same 
and  it  retained  its  literary  merit,  the  changes 
made  aimed  at  more  perfect  conformity  with 
Continental  standards.  But  this  service-book 
and  the  Act  of  Uniformity  which  imposed 
it  had  little  more  than  a  year  of  life,  and 
the  English  Church  was  never  again  so  nearly 
to  merge  itself  in  the  European  federation 
opposed  to  Rome. 

The  leaders  of  the  Church  were  supporters 
of  the  singularly  corrupt  and  unpopular 
government  of  the  latter  years  of  Edward  VI., 
and  the  Archbishop  and  Bishop  Ridley 
of  London  were  compromised  by  their  share 
in  the  vain  attempt  to  continue  it  with  Lady 
Jane  Grey  as  Queen.  When  Mary  ascended 
the  throne  amid  public  sympathy,  their  fall 
was    inevitable.     Mary    at    first     proceeded 


132  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

cautiously.  For  more  than  a  year  she  held, 
and  used,  her  statutory  powers  as  Supreme 
Head  of  the  Church,  and  when,  in  the  first 
session  of  her  first  Parliament,  the  whole 
of  her  brother's  ecclesiastical  legislation  was 
repealed,  she  stepped  into  her  father's  exact 
position.  The  bishops  deprived  under 
Edward  were  restored,  and  they  were  men 
who  had  sanctioned  Henry's  action  by  holding 
their  office  under  him  ;  some  indeed  had  been 
his  agents  in  attempting  to  procure  the 
divorce  from  Rome.  But  Gardiner  and 
Bonner  had  learned  that  their  former  attitude 
was  no  longer  tenable.  In  face  of  the  strong 
spirit  of  reform  in  England  they  could  not 
hold  their  own  without  external  support, 
which  must  come  from  Rome  and  Spain. 
Amid  fears  and  doubts  and  warnings  from 
Philip  of  Spain  the  restoration  of  the  Roman 
obedience  was  carried  through  by  Mary 
and  Pole,  the  Papal  legate,  who  was  soon  to 
succeed  Cranmer  at  Canterbury.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1554,  seventeen  months  after  Edward's 
death,  England  was  solemnly  reconciled  to 
Rome,  the  headship  was  abolished,  and  all 
the  Acts  against  heresy  were  revived. 

Then,  in  February,  1555,  began  the  martyr- 
doms ;  the  exodus,  which  was  equally  import- 
ant,    had    preceded    them.     While    several 


THE    REFORMATION  133 

bishops  and  a  multitude  of  the  leading  clergy, 
among  them  most  of  those  whom  Elizabeth 
was  to  make  bishops,  fled  to  Germany  or 
Switzerland,  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  whose 
danger  was  greatest,  rejected  the  opportunity 
of  flight.  The  deaths,  in  less  than  four  years, 
of  the  archbishop,  of  four  bishops,  and  of 
others  who  at  the  loAvest  estimate  were 
near  300  in  number,  had  a  decisive  effect  in 
alienating  England  from  the  Church  in  whose 
behalf  these  things  were  done.  Happily 
the  reign  of  Mary  was  brief.  Towards  its  end 
it  was  embittered  not  only  by  her  own  ill- 
health  but  also  by  strife  with  Rome.  The 
half -crazy  Neapolitan,  Paul  IV.,  went  to 
war  with  Philip,  who  was  King  of  Naples 
as  well  as  of  Spain,  over  South  Italian  politics, 
and  therefore  Mary  also  was  technically  his 
enemy.  Paul  punished  her  by  depriving 
Archbishop  Pole  of  his  legateship,  and  taunt- 
ing him — Pole  was  a  moderate  supporter 
of  reform  within  his  communion  and  especi- 
ally at  its  head — with  suspected  heresy. 
All  this  hardened  Mary's  heart,  and  persecu- 
tion grew  steadily  fiercer.  Revolution  must 
soon  have  come  had  not  death  anticipated  it. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 

Elizabeth  mounted  the  throne  amid  grave 
difficulties.  As  the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn 
she  represented  revolt  from  Rome,  and  the 
nation  expected  her  to  reverse  the  whole 
disastrous  policy  of  her  sister,  of  which 
Romanism  and  persecution  had  been  a  part. 
But,  thanks  to  ill-guided  policy,  England 
was  weak  and  dependent  on  Spain  for  pro- 
tection, and  the  jealous  care  of  Philip  lest 
his  sister-in-law's  dominions  should  fall  under 
French  control  was  her  best  safeguard  in 
the  early  years  of  her  reign.  Papal  excom- 
munication, and  a  Papal  summons  to  the 
faithful  to  assist  a  French  invasion  for  the 
suppression  of  heresy,  might  have  been  fatal. 
But  Philip  kept  the  Popes  under  restraint, 
and  w^as  himself  a  counterpoise  to  France. 
Elizabeth  was  not  put  under  the  ban  of  Rome 
till  she  had  reigned  nearly  twelve  years, 
and  then  she  and  England  could  stand 
unsupported.  Secular  policy,  aiming  at  the 
134 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    135 

balance  of  power,  had  hindered  the  fighting 
out  of  the  religious  issue,  and  had  given  time 
for  those  who  had  accepted  Henry's  system 
to  reconcile  themselves  to  it  once  more  after 
their  brief  trial  of  Rome  under  Mary. 

It  was,  then,  under  the  shelter  of  Spain 
that  the  English  Church  was  settled  on  per- 
manent lines.  But  the  settlement  was  not 
easy.  Convocation  was  opposed  to  change  ; 
most  of  the  dignified  clergy  had  been  ap- 
pointed under  Mary,  the  proctors,  elected 
under  the  eye  of  her  bishops,  were  men  of 
her  school,  and  the  episcopate  as  a  body 
was  hostile  to  change.  Elizabeth,  however, 
had  her  way,  and  restored  the  system  which 
her  sister  had  abolished.  No  place  could  be 
found  in  it  for  the  persecutors  ;  they  had  to 
suffer  ejection,  but  there  was  no  such  retalia- 
tion as  had  disgraced  Mary's  reign.  This  mercy 
was,  indeed,  a  necessary  result  of  the  theory 
on  which  Elizabeth's  advisers  acted.  It  was 
taken  for  granted  that  the  evicted  had  been 
lawful  occupants  of  their  posts  till  they 
vacated  them  by  non-compliance  with  the 
law.  There  was  no  charge  of  heresy  against 
them,  and  their  treatment  was,  considering 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  very  gentle.  But  though 
the  higher  clergy  were  removed,  those  in 
the     parishes    were    hardly    affected.     Only 


136    THE    CHURCH    01^    ENGLAND 

some  200  were  deprived  ;  the  rest,  even  those 
of  Marian  ordination,  assumed,  or  resumed, 
without  demur,  the  position  as  it  had  been 
under  Henry,  only  twelve  years  ago,  and  each 
year  that  passed  must  have  made  them  feel 
the  better  justified  in  holding  it. 

But  these  quiet  souls  were  not  to  control  the 
future.  That  was  to  be  the  lot  of  the  exiles 
who  flocked  back  to  England  on  the  death  of 
Mary.  There  was  one  improvement  on  the 
time  of  Edward  ;  the  foreigners  stayed  at 
home.  It  is  true  that  they  still  exerted  their 
influence.  English  reformers  consulted  them, 
reporting  progress  made  and  asking  their 
approval,  but  this  was  in  private  ;  the  public 
government  of  the  national  Church  was  in 
English  hands.  But  over  this  government 
there  were  keen  struggles  which  had  already 
broken  out  during  the  exile.  It  had,  in  fact, 
become  clear  before  the  return  that  the  aims 
of  two  parties  among  the  exiles  were  incom- 
patible. The  one  may  conveniently  be  called 
the  Anglican,  the  other  the  Puritan.  There 
was  no  serious  difference  between  them  in 
doctrine.  It  was  common  ground  to  the  two 
that  in  the  Divine  order  there  must  be  a 
national  Church,  with  a  coercive  government, 
to  which  all  members  of  the  nation  must 
belong,  joining  in  its  worship  and  accepting 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    137 

its  doctrine.  It  was  also  common  ground 
that  England,  under  such  a  sovereign  as 
Elizabeth,  had  such  a  Church,  orthodox  and 
non-Roman.  The  point  of  difference  was  as 
to  the  manner  of  its  government.  The  Angli- 
cans were  content  with  the  moderate  reform 
of  Edward  VI.,  and  were  ready  to  worship 
according  to  his  Prayer  Book.  They  did  not 
think  that  the  retention  of  ancient  words  and 
vestments  (or  at  any  rate  of  the  surplice)  was 
a  compromise  with  error.  Their  courteous 
reception  by  foreign  hosts  at  Frankfort  and 
elsewhere  showed  that  these  too  regarded  the 
survivals  as  harmless ;  and  this  sanction 
weighed  with  them,  for  they  had  no  thought 
of  unchurching  their  German  and  Swiss 
friends.  On  the  other  side,  the  Puritans  were 
for  a  complete  and  conspicuous  difference 
from  Rome.  This  struggle  had  already  begun, 
and  was  most  furious  at  Frankfort,  where 
Cox,  the  future  bishop  of  Ely,  led  the  Angli- 
cans, and  John  Knox  with  Foxe,  the  future 
author  of  the  Book  of  Martyrs,  their  opponents. 
Foxe,  whose  great  work  was  to  be  a  potent 
influence  against  Rome,  to  the  end  of  his  days 
was  in  trouble  about  his  surplice.  Knox 
effected  a  reformation  to  his  mind  in  Scotland. 
Neither  party  was,  or  could  on  principle  be, 
tolerant ;    each  was  aiming  at  entire  control 


138    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

of  the  Church.  It  happened  that  the  AngH- 
cans  had  the  first  opportunity  of  suppressing 
the  rival  school. 

Matthew  Parker,  Elizabeth's  first  archbishop, 
was  a  reformer  of  moderate  temper,  who  had 
lived  in  concealment  during  Mary's  reign, 
but  had  not  left  England.  His  interest 
■was  largely  in  the  historical  aspect  of  the 
English  Church.  With  the  past  as  connected 
with  Rome  he  had  little  sympathy  ;  he  took 
his  share,  like  Cranmer,  in  the  Eucharistic 
controversy,  and  judged  Rome  by  what  he 
regarded  as  its  errors  of  doctrine.  But  he  laid 
stress  on  the  continuity  of  the  working  system 
of  the  Church  ;  it  was  an  evidence  that  the 
Church,  in  spite  of  change,  was  still  itself. 
Hence  he  magnified  his  office,  on  which  Henry 
had  conferred  greater  powers  than  earlier 
archbishops  had  enjoyed.  All  the  special 
licences  which  the  Pope  had  hitherto  granted 
were  now,  so  far  as  they  continued  legal,  to  be 
granted  by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  ; 
for  instance,  licences  to  hold  benefices  in 
plurality  were,  and  are,  granted  by  him  alone, 
even  in  the  province  of  York.  Hence  abuses, 
which  lingered  even  into  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, for  when  the  whole  constitution  of  the 
Church  was  in  peril,  it  had  seemed  dangerous 
to  Parker  to  touch  even  its  weaker  points. 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    139 

The  English  Church,  then,  was  to  manifest 
its  continuity  by  retaining  its  constitutional 
position  and  the  immemorial  ordination  of  its 
ministry,  and  by  a  worship  and  an  attire  of  its 
clergy  that  should  remind  its  members  of  the 
past  ;  but  it  was  also  to  be  a  reformed  church, 
recognizing  its  sister  churches  abroad  and 
recognized  by  them.  But  Elizabeth  and 
Parker  had  no  mind  that  it  should  lose  its 
identity  and  be  merged  in  a  new  reformed 
cosmopolitan  system. 

Yet  if  they  and  the  majority  of  quiet  people 
were  content,  there  was  a  strong  body  both 
of  clergy  and  laity  otherwise  minded.  In  exile 
they  had  grown  familiar  with  churches  where 
repudiation  of  anything  that  could  remind 
men  that  once  they  had  been  in  communion 
with  Rome  had  been  raised  to  a  principle. 
To  such  men  a  rochet,  a  surplice,  a  collect 
from  the  Sarum  use  were  marks  of  Antichrist, 
and  it  seemed  their  duty  to  rescue  their  Church 
from  such  defilement.  At  first  this  party 
fought  for  externals.  Parker  insisted  on 
obedience,  and  rather  than  obey,  grave 
elderly  men  of  high  position,  the  Dean  of 
Christ  Church  among  them,  resigned  office. 
There  was  much  indignation.  Some  of  the 
bishops  were  doubtful  of  the  wisdom  of 
such    rigour ;     they    sympathized    with    the 


140  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

sufferers,  shielded  the  rebelHous,  and  were 
only  kept  from  joining  in  their  resistance 
to  the  law  by  the  expostulations  of  the  more 
moderate  foreign  reformers,  who  feared  lest 
disunion  might  lead  to  a  recovery  of  England 
by  Rome.  It  was  a  more  serious  matter  that 
the  leading  laity  were  often  of  the  same  mind. 
What  they  wanted  was  a  strong  national  union 
against  Rome,  and  they  were  ready  to  con- 
done or  encourage  irregularities  in  men  who 
were  the  extremest  and  most  logical  opponents 
of  the  Pope  and  his  ways. 

Thus  the  task  of  Parker  and  his  colleagues 
was  very  hard.  They  had  no  clear  fighting 
position  like  that  of  their  opponents  ;  their 
attitude  seemed  to  be  one  of  compromise  and 
could  not  be  set  forth  with  rhetorical  effect. 
And,  unfortunately  for  them,  though  the 
Queen  wished  them  to  succeed  she  foresaw 
that  they  might  fail,  and  was  determined  not 
to  share  the  unpopularity  they  incurred. 
It  was  at  their  own  risk  that  they  proceeded, 
and  they  had  little  success  in  the  parishes. 
For  bishops'  courts  had  lost  coercive  power  ; 
bishops  might,  and  did,  hold  visitations,  but 
these  only  informed  them  of  the  state  of  affairs 
and  gave  them  no  force  to  correct  the  mischief. 
The  Queen  withheld  as  yet  the  support  which 
as    "  Supreme    Governor  " — she  had  chosen 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    141 

this  instead  of  "  Supreme  Head  "  as  the  title 
to  be  given  her  in  the  Act  of  Uniformity  passed 
at  the  beginning  of  her  reign — she  had  power 
to  give. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  Puritanism  grew 
apace,  and  that  its  advocates  expected  soon 
to  be  masters  of  the  national  Church.  Parker 
was  sure  that  in  his  hands  it  was  the  old 
Church.  They  would  have  denied  that  pro- 
position, but  they  were  convinced  that  under 
their  charge  it  would  be  the  same  ortho- 
dox, national  Church  of  which  Parker  for 
the  present  had  control.  Soon  they  had  a 
machinery  to  propose  for  its  amendment. 
The  Scottish  revolution  of  1559  was  followed 
by  the  legislation  of  1560,  which  made  Scot- 
land in  Puritan  eyes  a  pattern  kingdom.  It 
combined  parity  of  ministers  with  an  organized 
system  fitted  for  a  nation.  Geneva  had  been 
too  small  to  furnish  an  object-lesson  in  that 
respect.  Parity  of  ministers  became  from 
1570,  when  the  Cambridge  Professor  Cart- 
wright  came  to  the  front,  the  real  issue,  and 
it  was,  unlike  the  quarrel  about  vestments,  a 
controversy  worthy  of  serious  men.  It  had 
been  mooted  in  print  as  early  as  1561,  and 
services  of  the  Genevan  type  had  been  held  in 
secret  in  London  in  1565.  In  the  country, 
under  the  protection  and  with  the  connivance 


142  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  local  magistrates  they  may  well  have  been 
held  earlier.  But  when  the  Genevan  ideal  of. 
worship  was  combined  with  the  principle^ 
asserted  to  be  scriptural  and  permanently 
binding,  of  the  equality  of  ministers,  the 
danger  to  the  existing  system  became  pressing. 
The  new  scheme  was  that  of  a  regular  hier- 
archy of  ministers,  those  of  each  neighbour- 
hood being  organized  in  a  classis  and  deriving 
their  authority  from  their  recognition  by  it. 
Above  the  classis,  which  might  correspond 
to  an  archdeaconry,  were  to  be  wider  assem- 
blies culminating  in  a  national  one,  which  in 
its  turn,  if  the  system  were  perfected,  would 
send  representatives  to  the  supreme  authority, 
a  cosmopolitan  general  council  of  the  reformed 
Churches.  It  was  a  bold  plan,  but  it  had 
actually  been  set  in  action,  up  to  the  national 
assembly,  in  Scotland,  and  the  promoters 
were  confident  of  the  same  success  in  England. 
But  there  came  to  be  a  grave  schism  in  the 
Puritan  ranks.  There  wqre  IndeiDcndents 
among  them  as  well  as  ^Presbyterians.  These 
Independents  also  accepted  the  idea  of  a 
national  Church  and  an  endowed  ministry, 
but  in  their  eyes  there  was  to  be  no  repre- 
sentative system  controlling  the  independence 
of  the  parish  clergy.  The  Church  was  to  be 
a  federation  of  parishes,   vdih  no  power  in 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZ.4EETH    143 

it  higher  than  the  individual  minister  and  the 
officers  chosen  by  his  congregation  ;  so  would 
the  little  churches  of  the  New  Testament  be 
reproduced.  This  was  the  doctrine,  as  it 
seems,  of  Robert  Browne,  the  father  of 
English  Independency.  He  was  not  a  Separ- 
atist, who  would  have  only  voluntary 
''  gathered  churches."  When  he  fell  into 
trouble  in  England  and  fled  to  Scotland  he 
was  promptly  imprisoned,  for  the  doctrine 
of  Independency  seemed  anarchical  to  Pres- 
byterians. Both  of  these  types  of  Puritans 
were  ready  to  accept  the  national  Church,  if 
it  were  reformed  to  their  mind.  They  asserted 
that  it  would  not  be  a  new  but  only  an 
improved  Church  if  they  had  their  way  ;  and 
even  now,  imperfectly  reformed  as  it  was, 
they  allowed  that  there  was  no  actual  sin  in 
attending  the  services  of  its  stricter  clergy. 
The  Independent  Church  established  in  New 
England  was  of  this  type.  Its  members 
regarded  themselves  as  belonging  to  the  Church 
of  England.  They  had  a  parochial  system, 
and  in  Massachusetts  a  state  position  till  1834. 
But  the  bitterness  of  oppression  drove  some 
Elizabethans  into  actual  Separatism.  They 
would  make  no  compromise.  For  them 
attendance  at  church  because  it  was  the 
national  Church  was  a  compliance  with  Anti- 


144  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Christ,  even  though  the  doctrine  taught  in 
it  were  their  own.  Such  men  were  Barrowists 
rather  than  Brownists,  taking  their  lead 
and  their  popular  name  from  one  of  the 
three  Separatists  who  suffered  death  under 
Elizabeth. 

The  first  and  most  formidable  attack 
was  that  of  the  Presbyterians,  headed  by 
Cartwright  and  Travers,  the  opponent  of 
Hooker.  On  the  other  side  the  leader  came 
to  be  Whitgift,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
He  was  a  strong  Calvinist  in  doctrine,  and 
held  the  Pope  to  be  Antichrist,  but  though 
for  him  episcopacy  was  unessential  he  was  a 
strong  upholder  of  discipline.  The  English 
Church  was  organized  on  episcopal  lines, 
and  therefore  good  Christians  should  accept 
that  system,  which  was  more  seemly  than 
any  other,  and  had  an  immemorial  history 
behind  it.  When  he  came  into  office  he  found 
discipline  relaxed  through  the  half-hearted 
policy  of  his  predecessor  Grindal,  who  died 
in  1583.  Grindal  had  looked  only  at  the 
personal  goodness  of  the  Presbyterians,  and 
his  charitable  interpretation  of  their  motives 
made  him  blind  to  their  revolutionary  scheme 
of  setting  up  an  administration  that  should 
undermine  and  abolish  the  existing  polity 
of  the   Church.     In  his   day   Elizabeth  had 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    145 

come  to  be  alarmed  at  the  divisions  within 
the  Church,  and  was  resolved  no  longer  to 
be  neutral.  She  would  cast  the  strength  of 
her  government  on  the  side  of  the  established 
order,  secure  uniformity  as  a  first  step  towards 
unity  of  feeling,  and  forbid  the  propagation, 
in  print  or  by  speech,  of  dissident  views. 
Grindal  failed  her,  and  for  the  last  years  of 
his  life  was  suspended  from  his  office  of 
archbishop. 

Whitgift,  supported  on  the  intellectual 
side  by  Hooker  and  on  the  practical  by 
Bancroft,  Bishop  of  London,  who  was  to 
succeed  him  as  archbishop,  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  success.  Hooker,  one  of  the  greatest 
of  English  thinkers  and  the  first  writer  of 
classical  English  prose,  combated  the  whole 
Puritan  position.  The  Bible,  he  taught, 
is  not  the  sole  code  of  rules  for  Christians, 
nor  are  they  bound  mechanically  to  reproduce 
the  church  government  described  in  it ; 
and  in  fact,  the  government  of  the  first  ages 
was  not  Presbyterian.  The  Church  is  a 
society,  and  societies,  like  individuals,  have 
their  right  and  place  in  the  Providential 
order.  They  grow,  and  shape  themselves. 
The  visible  Church  in  general,  and  the  English 
Church  in  particular,  have  shaped  themselves 
on  episcopal  lines  ;    episcopacy  is  ''  a  sacred 


146  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

regiment,  ordained  of  God."  They  were 
right  to  do  so,  and  their  members  must  be 
loyal  to  their  constitution.  As  things  have 
turned  out,  there  are  reformed  Churches 
which  have  no  bishops  to  ordain  their  clergy. 
Historical  necessity  has  made  them  what  they 
are,  and  Englishmen  need  not  criticize  them. 
Such  was  Hooker's  contribution  to  the  cause  ; 
Bancroft,  keen  and  pugnacious,  made  it  his 
business  to  detect  and  thwart  the  Presby- 
terian plan,  and  did  not  recoil  from  methods 
that  a  modern  politician  would  deem  un- 
dignified. For  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that 
argument,  the  method  of  Hooker,  was  useless  ; 
nothing  but  rigour  could  succeed. 

The  enemy  was  formidable.  The  passionate 
sympathy  of  the  English  people  for  the 
suffering  Protestants  of  France  and  the 
Netherlands,  who  were  treated  like  the 
Albigenses  of  old,  the  methods  and  the 
doctrines  on  the  Roman  side  being  exactly 
those  of  the  thirteenth  century,  excited 
admiration  for  the  Calvinist  belief  which 
sustained  the  heroes  of  the  struggle.  Calvinist 
doctrine  led  on  to  Calvinist  discipline,  which 
attracted  the  younger  men  in  the  Universities 
as  a  scheme  of  organization.  The  course 
of  the  Presbyterian  movement  has,  in  fact, 
a  strong  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Oxford 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    U7 

Movement  of  the  last  century.  Both  began 
among  fellows  of  colleges  at  the  Universities 
who  made  converts  among  the  influential 
laity.  In  both  movements  parishes  in  which 
the  doctrine  might  be  taught  were  obtained 
by  the  presentation  of  lay  patrons,  and  both 
causes,  in  face  of  opposition  in  the  parishes, 
and  especially  from  the  bishops,  ended  by 
winning  a  public  for  themselves. 

The  first  great  Puritan  movement  rose 
swiftly,  and  was  swiftly  suppressed.  In 
1584  a  petition  to  Parliament  was  presented, 
praying  for  relief  from  conformity.  In  the 
same  year  the  Presbyterian  scheme  w^as 
put  into  action,  the  Puritan  clergy  assembling 
in  local  classes,  and  regarding  them,  and  not 
their  bishops,  as  the  true  authority  over 
them.  Two  years  later  there  was  actually, 
though  secretly,  a  national  assembly  held  at 
Cambridge,  and  in  1587  in  London.  Mean- 
while the  Queen  and  parliament  were  bom- 
barded with  petitions,  and  a  secret  press 
flooded  the  country  with  pamphlets  by  "  Mar- 
tin Marprelate,"  in  which  the  existing  system 
of  the  Church  was  denounced  with  an  Eliza- 
bethan breadth  of  humour  which  lessens 
the  impression  of  sincerity.  Bishops  were 
described  as  a  "  swinish  rabble,"  and  Whitgift 
as     "  the     Canterbury    Caiaphas."         Strict 


148  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

measures  were  taken,  Bancroft  being  among 
those  most  active  in  tracing  out  the  leaders 
in  the  campaign,   and  in  1592  the  attempt 
came  to  an  end  and  the  classes  broke  up. 
The  bishops  had  won  because  they  were 
now   backed   up   by   the   High   Commission. 
This  was  a  royal  court,  established  by  author- 
ity of  Parliament,  with  extensive  and  indefinite 
powers  to  right  evils  that  the  ordinary  courts 
could    not    touch.     It    came,    bishops    being 
among    its    members,    to    exercise    a    wide 
jurisdiction  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.     The  bis- 
hops'  own   courts   had  ceased  to  have  any 
coercive  power  ;    and  the  High  Commission 
was   a   prompt   and   efficient   substitute.     It 
was  very  effective  in  saving  for  the  clergy 
tithes  or  other  revenues  of  which  the  tyranny 
of  patrons,  or  corrupt  bargains  for  the  sacrifice 
of  income  into  which  they  had  entered  with 
their  presentees,  were  often  depriving  them. 
For  the  spirit  of  encroachment  which  Henry 
VIII.   had  engendered,   and  which  was  not 
extinct    in    Elizabeth,    had    penetrated    into 
the    parishes,    and    Bancroft    did    a    lasting 
service  to  the  Church  in  bringing  such  extor- 
tions to  an  end.     But  that  court  was  especi- 
ally effective  in  keeping  the  clergy,  whether 
they  were  simply  indifferent  or  animated  by 
Roman  or  Puritan  spirit,  up  to  the  Anglican 


THE    REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH    149 

mark.  It  could  override  the  protection 
furnished  to  such  offenders  by  the  local 
magistrates,  and  insist  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment and  even  (though  rarely)  by  deprivation 
on  at  least  a  minimum  of  rubrical  order 
being  observed.  Thus  the  Church  in  the 
latter  years  of  Elizabeth  had  a  powerful, 
if  not  quite  ecclesiastical,  instrument  of 
coercion.  Discussion  was  suppressed,  but 
at  any  rate,  in  the  compulsory  quiet  that 
followed,  men  grew  to  be  accustomed  to  the 
appointed  order  of  worship,  and  custom  bred 
affection  for  it.  There  is  no  doubt  that, 
while  there  was  deep  disaffection  under  the 
surface,  that  devotion  to  the  Prayer  Book 
and  the  Anglican  system  which  marked  the 
churchmen  of  the  Stuart  age  was  also  gaining 
ground.  Now  for  the  first  time  there  came 
to  be  a  strong  volume  of  opinion  in  favour  of 
the  Church  as  being  not  merely  comparatively 
but  absolutely  good,  and  worthy  of  the  best 
loyalty  of  its  members. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE    STUARTS 

In  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth  the  English 
Church  had  found  itself.  The  strong  con- 
servative feeling  that  survived  from  the 
days  of  Henry  and  Mary  had  found  satisfaction 
in  the  Prayer  Book.  The  Popes,  induced 
by  political  motives  to  postpone  their  con- 
demnation of  the  Queen  and  Church  for 
twelve  years,  had  contributed  to  this  result. 
The  average  Englishman  inevitably  felt  that 
a  Church  which  Rome  hesitated  so  long  to 
denounce  could  not  be  very  bad,  to  say  the 
worst.  And  when  the  Papal  condemnation 
coincided,  obviously  not  by  chance,  with 
Spanish  hostility,  his  loyalty  was  engaged 
on  the  national  side.  If  he  took  the  Roman 
side,  he  was  an  agent,  perhaps  a  victim 
deliberately  chosen  for  sacrifice,  in  an  inter- 
national struggle.  Comparatively  few  were 
ready  to  welcome  the  danger,  either  to  them- 
selves or  to  their  country.  Happily  there 
was  soon  a  schism  among  those  who  took  the 
150 


THE    STUARTS  151 

risk.  The  secular  clergy,  unlike  the  Jesuits, 
knew  how  to  combine  loyalty  to  their  Church 
with  loyalty  to  their  nation.  They  and  their 
followers  managed  to  make  a  secret  agree- 
ment, largely  through  Bancroft,  with  the 
government.  The  Jesuits,  seeing  that  they 
were  the  weaker  party,  changed  their  tone, 
and  gradually  the  Roman  Catholics  accepted 
the  position  of  a  peaceful,  tolerated  com- 
munion, whom  their  opponents,  with  some 
discreditable  lapses,  ceased  to  suspect  and 
persecute. 

The  great  majority  of  the  conservatives 
became  in  time  acclimatized  to  their  English 
worship.  The  same  was  the  case  with  most 
of  the  Puritans.  In  the  latter  years  of 
Elizabeth  they  abandoned  their  hope  of 
reconstructing  the  Church,  and  acquiesced 
in  conformity.  They  found  that  in  the 
existing  system  there  was  nothing  intolerable 
to  their  conscience,  provided  (as  was  the  case) 
that  they  were  allowed  to  interpret  it  in  their 
own  way.  They  adopted  clerical  dress  in 
church  and  abroad,  and  they  followed,  often 
not  very  com.pletely,  the  rubrics  of  the  Prayer 
Book.  Thus  habit  was  formed,  and  though 
patrons  of  Puritan  mind  presented  clergy 
of  the  same  temper,  conformity  in  a  loose 
sense   became   general.     This   w^as   promoted 


152  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

by  the  steady  pressure  of  the  High  Commis- 
sion, for  though  comparatively  few  were 
actually  summoned,  none  of  the  disobedient 
were  sure  of  safety.  But,  though  custom 
often  grew  into  preference  for  the  established 
order,  the  cases  were  numerous  in  which  there 
was  a  mere  submission.  Such  men  felt  that 
the  system  fell  far  short  of  their  ideal,  but 
they  submitted,  for  at  least  it  gave  them  a 
position  in  which  they  could  exercise  their 
ministry,  and  the  opportunity  of  working 
for  a  change. 

The  moment  for  the  change  seemed  to  have 
come  with  the  death  of  Elizabeth.  James  I. 
came  to  England  from  that  pattern  of  Pres- 
byterian order,  the  kingdom  of  Scotland. 
Puritans  who  were  yearning  for  such  discipline 
in  their  own  land  did  not  dream  that  the 
King  was  escaping  with  j  03^  from  a  system  for 
which  he  had  conceived  a  deep  repugnance. 
He  meant  to  enjoy  to  the  full  his  constitu- 
tional rights  in  regard  to  the  English  Church, 
as  Henry  and  Elizabeth  had  done,  and  his 
experience  of  Scotch  ministers  with  their 
oligarchical,  rather  than  democratic,  authority 
had  made  him  enamoured  of  episcopacy. 
"  No  bishop,  no  king,"  was  his  maxim  from 
the  first.  In  their  ignorance  of  all  this 
the  Puritans  met  him  with  a  great  petition, 


THE    STUARTS  153 

which,  so  they  claimed,  represented  a  strong 
pubHc  opinion,  and  James,  wishing  to  know 
how  the  land  lay,  gratified  them  by  ordering 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference  to  be  held  in 
1604.  It  was  a  false  step,  for  it  was  a  public 
recognition  of  the  party  he  meant  to  suppress. 
Elizabeth  would  never  have  put  the  Puritan 
leaders  into  open  equality  with  her  bishops  ; 
it  was  an  advertisement  for  them  of  the 
utmost  value.  From  the  Conference  itself 
they  derived  cold  comfort.  All  their  wishes, 
ranging  from  the  desire  to  be  relieved  from 
the  vestments  up  to  the  demand  for  the 
power  of  excommunication  for  presbyters 
and  the  rest  of  the  full  Scottish  system, 
were  rejected,  not  too  courteously.  Nor 
were  they  more  successful  in  saddling  the 
Church  with  the  stern  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion which  Whitgift  had  formulated  in  vain 
in  the  Lambeth  Articles  of  1595.  It  was  true 
that  James  accepted  this,  the  approved 
Protestant  orthodoxy  of  the  day,  and  in  1619 
was  to  send  English  divines  to  sit  among  the 
delegates  of  the  foreign  Calvinist  churches 
at  the  Synod  of  Dort,  where  the  opposite 
doctrine  was  condemned ;  but  happily  it 
has  never  been  the  express  doctrine  of  the 
English  Church,  though  it  has  been  widely 
held   within   it   till   the   nineteenth   century. 


154  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Puritans  had  to  retire  from  the  Confer- 
ence utterly  disappointed.  Its  practical  re- 
sults were  the  completion  of  the  Church 
Catechism  by  the  questions  and  answers  on 
the  Sacraments,  and  the  Authorized  Version 
of  the  Bible,  work  on  which  was  at  once  begun. 
These  were  uncontroversial  topics  on  which 
both  parties  were  agreed. 

The  chief  contrast  between  the  policy  of 
James  and  that  of  Elizabeth  was  that  the 
former  trusted  the  heads  of  the  Church.  He 
allowed  self-government,  and  especially  he 
sanctioned  the  passing  of  a  code  of  laws  for 
the  Church,  w^hich  hitherto  had  lived  since 
Henry's  day  under  a  confused  system,  partly 
statutory,  partly  drawn  from  canons  which 
retained  their  force  as  not  being  contrary 
to  legislation,  partly  consisting  of  royal  or 
episcopal  injunctions  and  advertisements, 
the  coercive  authority  of  which  was  doubtful. 
James  decided  to'  remedy  this  confusion. 
But  there  was  the  grave  practical  difficulty 
that  from  Henry  VIII.  onwards  the  official 
doctrine  had  been  that  in  ecclesiastical  mat- 
ters, affecting  laity  as  well  as  clergy,  the 
legislative  power  lay  with  the  Convocations 
(i.e.,  in  practice  with  that  of  Canterbury) 
subject  only  to  the  royal  assent.  Canons 
so  confirmed  were  as  valid  as  Acts  of  Parlia- 


THE    STUARTS  155 

ment  which  had  received  the  same  assent. 
ParHament,  it  had  been  held,  had  no  rights 
over  the  Church,  and  the  Crown  had  success- 
fully resisted  its  intrusion  into  that  domain. 
But  the  Crown  was  now  weaker,  and  public 
opinion,  which  found  voice  in  Parliament, 
was  stronger  than  ever  before.  Hence  the 
canons  of  1604,  the  work  of  Convocation  and 
Crown,  were  a  hazardous  experiment.  It  is 
true  that  they  were  studiously  moderate. 
For  instance  a  "  decent  table,"  to  stand 
anywhere  in  the  church,  satisfied  their  require- 
ments, and  would  satisfy  any  Puritan  ;  but 
there  was  an  irritating  number  of  canons 
to  which  penalties,  often  necessarily,  were 
attached,  and  the  whole  code  by  its  claim  to 
universal  authority  seemed  a  defiance  of 
Parliament.  It  was  to  be  a  cause  of  friction 
down  to  the  Civil  war,  for  Puritan  represen- 
tatives in  Parliament  were  to  be  constantly 
objecting  to  the  canons  either  in  principle 
or  in  detail,  and  hostile  resolutions,  which  the 
Crown  would  ignore,  were  frequently  to  be 
passed. 

If  Parliament  would  not  acquiesce,  it  was 
at  first  a  still  more  serious  matter  that  the  law 
courts  prevented  the  administration  of  the 
new  code.  There  had  always  been  jealousy 
in  England  between  the  different  courts,  and 


156  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

under  James  the  Common  Law  judges  were 
able  to  assume,  much  as  the  French  judges 
did  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a  rather  unreal 
attitude  as  champions  of  liberty.  For  there 
was  a  question  as  to  the  legality  of  the  High 
Commission's  powers,  and  clever  lawyers 
induced  the  judges  in  many  instances  to  pro- 
hibit the  execution  of  the  orders  of  the 
Commission.  There  was  another  reason  be- 
yond the  constitutional.  The  lawyers  had 
an  instinctive  respect  for  freehold  rights,  and 
when  the  High  Commission  was  seen  to  be 
attacking  the  "  parson's  freehold  "  they  were 
at  once  in  arms.  Here  again  the  comparative 
weakness  of  the  new  dynasty  was  doing  its 
work.  Even  a  Coke  might  not  have  been 
so  bold  against  the  wishes  of  Elizabeth. 
Very  often  the  clergy  menaced  were  simply 
indolent  or  scandalous,  but  the  procedure 
against  them  was  exactly  that  which  was 
employed  against  an  obstinate  Puritan,  and 
all  alike  were  protected  by  the  prohibitions 
of  the  Common  Law.  Before  long,  it  was 
true,  a  private  compromise  between  the  judges 
and  Bancroft,  now  archbishop,  was  reached, 
by  which  protection  was  withdrawn  from 
flagrant  offenders.  But  the  "  freehold  "  had 
been  vindicated  ;  and  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  all  penal  action  by  bishops  to-day 


THE    STUARTS  157 

has  the  express  sanction  of  Acts  of  Parliament. 
The  immediate  result  of  the  activity  of  the 
High  Commission  in  enforcing  the  new 
canons  was  that  some  300  clergy  were  sus- 
pended or  otherwise  punished,  and  perhaps 
fifty  deprived.  There  was  general  submission 
after  that,  but  a  resentment  the  keener  that 
it  was  concealed  ;  and  the  Puritan  patrons 
continued  to  present  men  of  their  school  to 
vacant  livings,  who  conformed  but  whose 
sympathies  were  Presbyterian. 

Meanwhile  the  Church  was  making  notable 
advances.  On  both  sides,  among  those  who 
approved  and  those  who  submitted,  there 
was  an  increase  of  efficiency.  The  incomes  of 
the  clergy  were  better  paid,  and  their  social 
position,  at  least  among  the  beneficed,  was 
maintained.  Churches  were  beautified,  and 
there  are  few  generations  to  which  we  owe 
more  in  this  respect  than  the  one  which  gave 
us  our  Jacobean  oak-work.  In  spite  of  deep 
cleavage  the  clergy  had  found  a  modus 
Vivendi,  and  if  things  had  remained  as  they 
were  permanent  peace  might  have  ensued,  one 
school  or  the  other  quietly  dying  out.  For 
as  yet  there  was  a  broad  common  ground. 
Bancroft  recognized  the  foreign  reformed 
Churches  as  of  the  same  nature  as  his  own, 
and  had  no   scruples   about  the   holding  of 


158  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

English  preferments  by  men  ordained  in  them. 
And  what  seemed  the  greatest  triumph  of  the 
day,  the  falUng  into  Hne  of  the  Scottish 
Church  with  the  Enghsh  in  the  matter  of 
bishops,  was  an  admission  of  the  same  principle. 
It  was  recognised  on  either  side  that  bishops, 
being  superintendents  over  ministers,  must 
be  chosen  from  among  ministers.  When  three 
bishops  for  Scotland  were  consecrated  in 
1610,  they  were  men  in  Presbyterian  orders, 
and  thus  the  English  bishops  expressed  a 
judgment  of  their  own  in  favour  of  that 
ministry.  Those  Scottish  bishops  never  con- 
firmed, used  no  order  of  service  save  that  of 
Knox,  wore  Genevan  gowns  ;  they  were  in 
practice  only  permanent  presidents  of  synods, 
who  as  such  conferred  ordination.  It  was 
an  object  lesson  in  compromise  to  which  appeal 
was  to  be  made  more  than  once,  though 
unsuccessfully,  in  the  coming  troubles.  For 
the  present  it  worked  well  enough  in  Scotland, 
and  Abbot,  who  had  been  an  efficient  agent 
in  reconciling  the  Scots  to  the  measure,  had 
his  reward  in  being  made  Archbishop  on  Ban- 
croft's death.  Under  him  there  was  no  like- 
lihood of  innovation. 

But  beneath  the  calm  surface  of  conformity 
there  was  much  agitation.  Hostility  to 
Rome   was    as    violent    as    ever   among   the 


THE    STUARTS  159 

conforming  Puritans.  But  Rome  was  growing 
fashionable,  especially  among  great  ladies  of 
the  Court.  The  slight  suspicion  of  danger 
only  made  the  intrigue  more  exciting.  And 
the  royal  family  itself  was  suspected.  No 
other  royal  house  of  the  first  rank  adhered 
to  the  Reformation ;  princes  must  marry 
their  equals,  and  marriages  involved  danger 
to  the  national  communion.  The  wife  of 
James  I.  was  a  secret  Romanist,  and  the 
alternatives  in  the  case  of  his  son  were  a 
Spanish  and  a  French  princess.  The  latter, 
when  she  came,  was  not  only  a  protection  to 
English  members  of  her  Church  but  also  an 
active  proselytiser.  No  wonder  that  Puritans 
and  old  fashioned  English  churchmen  grew 
suspicious,  and  scented  danger  in  everything 
that  might  suggest  Rome,  and  not  least  in 
the  canons  of  1604,  which  were  largely,  and 
reasonably,  drawn  from  ancient  or  mediaeval 
sources. 

For  a  new  spirit  was  coming  over  the  more 
churchly  element  in  our  communion.  It  was 
a  great  age  of  learning,  when  scholars  ranked 
as  high  as  scientific  discoverers  do  to-day. 
One  chief  field  for  discovery  was  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  early  Christian  centuries.  English- 
men took  an  honourable  place  in  these  pur- 
suits, and  England  attracted  great  scholars. 


160  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

such  as  Casaubon,  from  abroad.  They  were 
no  Romanists,  but  members  of  reformed 
Churches  who  came  here  because  the  EngHsh 
Church  resembled  the  ancient  as  none  other 
in  Christendom  did.  Thus  EngHshmen  came 
to  be  proud  of  their  Church.  Its  very  pecu- 
liarities were  a  cause  of  satisfaction ;  no 
longer  was  Geneva  or  Zurich  or  Edinburgh 
the  pattern,  and  the  shortcomings  of  the 
English  reformation  a  matter  of  regret.  And 
this  new  feeling  was  augmented  by  a  know- 
ledge of  the  existing  Greek  Church.  The 
Turkish  East  was  a  chief  seat  of  English  trade, 
and  the  merchants  supported  chaplains, 
among  whom  were  some  of  our  best  clergy 
and  best  scholars.  They  collected  manuscripts 
to  enrich  English  libraries,  and  brought  back 
not  only  books  but  news  of  a  venerable  and 
stately  Church  that  preserved  its  immemorial 
doctrine  and  worship,  and  yet  was  thoroughly 
hostile  to  Rome.  Thus  a  new  standard  was 
set,  and  that  interest  in  patristic  orthodoxy 
which  since  then  has  been  dominant  among 
English  theologians  was  awakened. 

Our  divines  were  eager  to  make  the  most 
of  the  points  in  common  between  England 
and  the  orthodox  East.  Conspicuous  among 
these  was  episcopacy,  which  therefore  gained 
a  new  importance.     A  gulf  was  opened  be- 


THE    STUARTS  161 

tween  the  English  and  the  other  reformed 
Churches  ;  the  difference  between  them 
seemed  to  be  one  in  kind,  not  in  degree.  And 
when  emphasis  was  laid  on  episcopacy,  Rome 
seemed  nearer.  This,  indeed,  was  a  conces- 
sion that  had  to  be  made  in  the  effort  to 
retain  the  w^averers  among  the  upper  classes. 
They  were  tempted  by  Rome,  and  it  would 
have  merely  alienated  them  to  assert  that 
there  was  no  goodness  in  the  Roman  com- 
munion. There  obviously  was,  and  it  was 
a  sound  controversial  method  to  make  the 
most  of  it  in  order  to  point  out  that  England 
had  all  Rome's  merits,  and  had  even  more. 
Here  again  episcopacy  was  a  matter  to  be 
emphasised.  It  became  not  merely  an  evid- 
ence of  continuity  but  a  part  of  the  essential 
constitution  of  the  Church  and  a  ground  for 
its  claim  to  the  allegiance  of  its  members. 
It  passed  from  history  into  theology,  and  it 
was  the  most  conspicuous  difference  between 
the  reformed  Churches  abroad  and  those  of 
England  and  Scotland ;  for  in  the  latter, 
though  minimized  and  half-concealed,  there 
was  now  an  episcopate. 

That  the  two  schools  of  thought  should 
continue  side  by  side  in  one  Church  was  grow- 
ing increasingly  difficult.  It  was  made  im- 
possible by  the  Anglicans.     Their  very  merits 


162    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

alienated  the  other  party.  A  new  sense  of 
the  beauty  of  rehgion  and  of  its  accessories 
was  being  developed.  Poets  such  as  George 
Herbert  and  Vaughan  were  casting  a  halo 
round  the  worship  of  the  Church,  and  it  was 
being  commended  by  the  holiness  of  men  like 
Bishop  Andrewes.  But  it  was  all  ecclesiastical, 
and  it  irritated  the  unecclesiastical  Puritan 
mind,  for  it  seemed,  quite  wrongly,  to  be 
specifically  Roman  in  origin  and  tendency. 
And  it  was  connected,  unjustly  but  naturally, 
with  the  extreme  theory  of  the  Divine  right 
of  the  King  that  was  being  preached  by 
reckless  men.  This  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
mediaeval  doctrine  devised  as  an  antidote  to 
the  Divine  right  of  the  Pope.  It  was  now 
being  used  to  justify  royal  absolutism,  in 
faithful  imitation  of  that  effusive  loyalty 
which  the  Greek  Fathers  had  shown  to  a 
Constantme  or  a  Theodosius.  Charles  I. 
had  been  ruling  and  collecting  taxes  without 
a  Parliament  for  eleven  years  when  the 
collapse  came  which  forced  him  to  summon 
the  Long  Parliament  and  endure  the  Civil 
War ;  and  all  the  time  the  leaders  of  the 
Church,  headed  by  Archbishop  Laud,  had 
been  ostentatiously  approving  his  course. 
Juxon,  the  Bishop  of  London,  had  actually, 
as   Lord   Treasurer,    been    one    of   his    most 


THE    STUARTS  16a 

responsible  ministers  during  the  last  and  worst 
part  of  the  period.  The  Church  seemed  to  be 
compromised  beyond  repair  by  this  associa- 
tion, and  this  at  a  time  when  political  and 
religious  issues  were  inextricably  intertwined. 
But  not  only  had  the  Church  supported  a 
policy,  which,  if  it  failed,  must  be  as  dis- 
astrous to  the  bishops  as  to  the  king.  It 
had  also  continued  to  use  to  the  utmost  that 
dubiously  legal  instrument,  the  High  Com- 
mission. Always  in  what  he  deemed  the 
interests  of  righteousness,  but  often  with 
masterful  unwisdom,  Laud  had  employed 
it  in  ways  most  distasteful  to  the  Puritan 
mind.  He  could  do  so  w4th  a  clear  conscience, 
for  Divine  right  overruled  for  him  consti- 
tutional considerations  ;  but  the  objects  at 
which  he  aimed  were  as  repugnant  to  the 
Puritans  as  was  his  method  to  the  men  of  the 
Parliament.  Nothing  could  have  saved  him 
and  the  Church  as  he  knew  it,  save  success, 
and  he  and  his  party  failed.  Yet  even  on 
the  brink  of  disaster  he  had  foreseen  no 
danger  and  learned  no  prudence.  A  new  cude 
of  canons,  amplifying  and  strengthening  the 
former,  passed  Convocation  and  received  the 
royal  assent  in  1640  ;  it  professed  to  bind  a 
laity  which  was  on  the  brink  of  rebellion. 
But  the  teaching  of  this  school  was  as  offen- 


164  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

sive  to  the  Puritans  as  its  practice.  Men  like 
Laud  and  Andrewes  were  free  from  the  crude 
dogmatism  of  the  age.  Though  they  were 
resolved  to  have  worship  uniform,  they  were 
willing  to  leave  many  speculative  issues  open, 
and  this  want  of  definiteness  was  regarded 
as  indifference  to  truth.  Yet  their  worst 
offence  was  that  they  denied  the  great  Cal- 
vinist  doctrine  of  Predestination.  They  were 
Arminians,  as  the  school  was  called  after  the 
Dutch  teacher  who  had  been  condemned  at 
Dort.  That  Christ  died  for  all,  and  that  all 
might  profit  by  His  death,  was  a  belief  that 
was  not  regarded  as  even  respectable,  for 
till  Arminius  propagated  it  among  the  Cal- 
vinists  of  Holland,  it  had  only  been  taught 
since  the  Reformation  by  some  Anabaptists 
and  some  early  Unitarians.  To  teach  it  was 
to  defy  the  great  doctor  St.  Augustine,  to 
whom  the  Puritans  paid  undoubting  homage. 
The  Anglican  school  did  no  greater  service 
to  English  Christianity  than  this  challenge 
to  prevalent  belief  ;  and  in  the  long  run,  as 
we  shall  see,  their  doctrine  was  to  prevail, 
though  the  struggle  was  to  last  into  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

Arminian,  tolerant  in  doctrine,  martinet 
in  discipline,  committed  to  a  false  constitu- 
tional  theory  that   was  to   fail   disastrously 


THE    STUARTS  165 

in  practice,  Laud  had  no  suspicion  that  his 
King's  support  would  be  the  ruin  of  his  cause, 
and  his  very  virtues  would  cause  his  downfall. 
When  the  Long  Parliament  defied  the  King, 
it  was  the  religious  grievance  that  sharpened 
the  political  strife,  and  every  effort  Laud 
had  made  to  encourage  reverence  counted  as 
a  provocation.  He  was  the  most  unpopular 
man  in  England,  and  was  punished  early  in 
1643  by  the  Parliament's  abolition  of  episco- 
pacy, and  by  his  own  imprisonment  and 
subsequent  execution.  It  would  be  utterly 
unjust  to  estimate  his  character  by  his 
weaknesses.  On  the  scaffold  (Jan.  10,  1645), 
he  asserted  that  "  he  had  always  lived  in  the 
Protestant  Church  of  England,"  thus  dis- 
claiming both  Calvinism  and  Romanism. 

But  the  Parliament  had  to  build  a  new 
structure  in  the  place  of  what  they  had 
overthrown.  They  called  to  their  assistance 
the  famous  Westminster  Assembly,  which 
met  in  July,  1643.  Then  it  appeared  how 
far  the  school  of  Laud  was  from  predominance. 
From  every  county  in  England  came  grave, 
elderly,  learned  men,  episcopally  ordained 
under  Elizabeth  or  James,  beneficed  clergy 
who  had  conformed  for  years  to  the  Prayer 
Book  and  worn  their  surplice.  They  regarded 
themselves  as  conservatives,   maintainers  of 


166  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Elizabethan  tradition,  loyal  to  the  canons 
of  1604.  Their  patrons  had  been  the  country 
gentry,  in  many  cases  men  who  were  to  side 
with  the  King  in  his  conflict  with  Parliament, 
though  a  number  of  great  noblemen  and  land- 
lords such  as  Manchester,  Essex  and  Bedford, 
were  on  the  Puritan  side  and  had  also  ap- 
pointed men  of  the  Westminster  type.  These 
divines,  now  that  they  were  free  to  mould 
the  Church  after  their  will,  showed  that  their 
bent  was  Presbyterian.  Their  conformity 
had  been  no  more  than  tolerance.  The 
English  Church  had  been  a  true  Church,  to 
whose  rules  they  had  submitted  without 
sin,  but  it  had  been  sadly  imperfect.  Now 
they  would  amend  it  after  the  pattern  of 
*'  the  best  reformed  churches."  The  result 
of  their  labours  was  a  Confession  of  Faith, 
part  of  a  "  covenanted  uniformity  in  religion 
betwixt  the  churches  of  Christ  in  the  kingdoms 
of  Scotland,  England  and  Ireland."  That 
Confession,  drawn  up  by  English  beneficed 
clergymen  with  a  few  Scottish  assessors, 
is  still  authoritative  for  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land. But  they  did  more  than  frame  a  creed. 
They  shaped  a  Presbyterian  discipline  for 
our  Church,  which  was  made  law  by  an 
ordinance  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  1646. 
But  Englishmen  flinched  from  the  prospect 


THE    STUARTS  167 

of  ministers  ruling  them  with  the  rod  of 
excommunication,  and  the  Presbyterian  sys- 
tem, which  the  need  of  Scotch  miHtary  aid 
against  the  King  had  alone  induced  the 
majority  of  Parhament  to  accept,  was  never 
effectively  established  save  in  London  and 
the  neighbourhood  of  Manchester.  The  dream 
of  a  Presbyterian  England,  cherished  for  more 
than  seventy  years,  was  finally  dissipated, 
and  the  party  was  soon  reduced  to  ineffectual 
efforts  to  make  a  compromise  with  churchmen, 
by  which  bishops  should  survive,  but  be  shorn 
of  almost  all  their  powers. 

The  place  which  the  Presbyterians  lost 
was  taken  by  the  Independents,  whom  the 
army  supported.  We  have  seen  that  within 
the  Puritan  ranks  there  had  soon  appeared 
a  school  which  held  that  Scripture  justified 
no  larger  unit  than  the  single  congregation. 
They  shared  the  general  belief  that  a  nation 
ought  to  have  a  national  Church,  and  this, 
according  to  them,  ought  to  consist  of  an 
aggregate  of  mutually  independent  churches. 
The  nation  had  a  right  to  insist  that  its 
members  should  attend  public  worship  ; 
therefore  there  should  be  a  sufficiency  of 
churches,  and  a  stipend  for  those  who  con- 
ducted their  services.  But  beside  this  outer 
circle  of  attendants  there  ought  to  be  an  inner 


168  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

circle  round  the  minister,  who  formed  the 
"  Church "  in  their  technical  sense.  This 
should  co-opt  its  members  and  control  the 
administration  of  its  affairs.  Neither  the 
State  nor  any  other  authority  ought  to  have 
power  to  command  the  "  Church  "  to  admit 
a  member,  or  to  coerce  any  one  into  becoming 
a  member  of  the  "  Church."  This  very 
indefinite  system  was  set  up  under  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  worked  better  than  might 
have  been  expected. 

There  were,  of  course,  many  vacancies 
to  be  filled.  The  royalists  were  the  first  to 
create  them.  From  the  western  counties 
in  their  possession  they  ejected,  as  a  military 
precaution,  the  clergy  who  sympathized  with 
the  Parliament.  These  fled  with  their  families 
to  London,  where  a  "  Committee  for  plundered 
ministers  "  was  established  for  their  relief. 
A  cheap  and  obvious  method  was  that  of 
retaliation.  Clergy  of  royalist  and  churchlike 
tendencies  were  driven  from  their  homes  in 
the  eastern  counties,  and  the  refugees  installed 
in  their  place.  As  the  control  of  Parliament 
extended  the  process  was  continued,  though 
without  the  same  excuse.  From  livings 
that  were  worthy  of  the  name  all  the  clergy 
save  such  as  were  of  Puritan  sympathies 
were  ejected  ;    in  the  poor  livings  which  no 


THE    STUARTS  169 

one  desired  many  strong  Anglicans  were 
permitted  to  remain.  It  will  be  found  that  the 
income  of  the  parishes  where,  according  to 
tradition,  the  Prayer  Book  was  used  through- 
out the  troubles,  is  almost  always  pitiful. 
It  is  a  vulgar  error  that  uneducated  and 
scandalous  men  were  numerous  among  the 
Puritan  intruders.  The  truth  is  that  there 
were  plenty  of  young  men,  educated  at  the 
Universities  and  ordained  by  the  bishops, 
but  holding  the  principles  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  who  were  either  unbeneficed  or 
holding  poor  livings  which  they  were  quite 
ready  to  leave  for  better  ones.  The  system 
of  patronage  remained,  and  patrons  were 
unlikely  to  present  men  inferior  to  their 
Anglican  predecessors  ;  and  there  was  careful 
administration  of  the  great  mass  of  episcopal 
and  capitular  patronage  which,  with  that  of 
the  Crown  and  of  royalists  incapacitated 
from  exercising  their  rights,  was  now  at  the 
disposal  of  the  government.  There  was  strict 
examination  by  "  Triers,"  ministers  appointed 
to  test  the  qualification  of  candidates,  and 
in  every  county  there  was  a  Committee  of 
Religion,  consisting  of  county  gentlemen 
who  exercised  the  powers  of  institution  and 
supervision  that  had  belonged  to  the  bishop. 
Under    the    Independent    regime    of    the 


170  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Commonwealth  the  clergyman  who  conld 
once  obtain  a  living  and  keep  on  good  terms 
with  his  parishioners,  was  under  no  higher 
control.  In  practice,  even  if  not  in  principle, 
he  was  an  Independent.  The  Law  Courts 
protected  his  freehold  and  enforced  the 
payment  of  his  tithes  ;  the  one  thing  that 
was  not  done  was  to  compel  attendance  at 
his  church  and  to  give  him  the  monopoly 
of  preaching  in  his  parish.  The  strange  and 
not  exaggerated  stories  that  we  read  of  the 
religion  of  the  time  belong  to  the  private 
adventurers  who  formed  congregations  where 
the  doctrine  of  the  parish  church  disagreed 
v/ith  their  own  ;  such  eccentrics  were  rare 
among  the  legal  occupants  of  the  benefices. 
Among  these  were  a  considerable  number 
of  strict  Anglicans,  several  of  whom,  such  as 
Bull  and  Lake,  afterwards  became  bishops. 
The  Triers  were  only  concerned  with  the 
piety,  blameless  life  and  competent  knowledge 
of  candidates,  and  the  county  committee 
made  no  difficulty  in  admitting  them  to 
benefices  if  they  could  obtain  a  presentation. 
They  would,  in  fact,  have  had  their  remedy 
at  law  if  they  had  been  rejected.  The  only 
limitation  imposed  was  that  they  might  not 
read  the  service  from  the  Prayer  Book. 
As  part  of  the  policy  of  suppressing  "  Popery 


THE    STUARTS  171 

and  Prelacy,"  this  was  forbidden.  But  they 
were  not  forbidden  to  recite  the  services 
by  heart,  and  this  we  know  was  done  ;  while, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  number  of  undesirable 
livings  were  left  in  the  hands  of  their  original 
occupants,  who  ventured  to  read  the  prayers, 
secure  in  the  knowledge  that  no  one  envied 
their  position.  But  where  the  Anglicans 
were  themselves  intruders,  daring  to  use 
the  Prayer  Book  in  parishes  occupied  by 
Puritans,  little  mercy  was  shown  them. 
Their  meetings  were  broken  up  by  the  mili- 
tary, and  minister  and  congregation  haled 
to  prison.  Yet  such  outrages  commonly 
occurred  when  the  government  was  alarmed 
by  rumours  of  royalist  plotting,  and  there 
were  intervals  of  comparative  safety. 

These  distresses  ended  with  the  Restoration, 
when  trouble  began  for  the  other  side,  who 
had,  for  their  part,  recklessly  provoked 
retaliation.  With  the  return  of  the  King 
all  existing  rights  came  again  into  force, 
and  among  them  those  of  the  beneficed  clergy, 
who  had  clearly  been  ejected  by  unconstitu- 
tional measures.  All  who  survived  returned 
to  their  homes,  and  there  was  a  much  larger 
ejection  than  ensued  two  years  later.  Yet 
the  latter  event  created  a  greater  emotion. 
The  Act  of  Uniformity  of  1660  ordered  that 


172  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

all  the  intruding  ministers  who  were  relieved 
by  the  death  of  their  predecessors  from  the 
necessity  of  vacating  their  livings  should, 
if  they  were  not  in  Holy  Orders,  remedy  that 
defect  within  two  years,  and  that  the  use 
of  the  Prayer  Book  should  be  compulsory 
from  the  same  date.  The  term  for  obedience 
was  fixed  on  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  1662. 
The  former  requirement  did  not  cause  great 
difficulty.  Before  the  troubles  unordained 
ministers  were  almost  unknown.  No  scruples 
had  been  felt  by  men  of  Puritan  mind  over 
this  point.  From  the  leaders  who  had  sat 
in  the  Westminster  Assembly  downwards, 
they  had  regarded  Anglican  ordination  as  a 
rite  which  might  conscientiously  be  undergone, 
since  it  was  the  rule  of  the  reformed  national 
Church.  Only  men  of  about  forty  years  of 
age  or  less  can  have  been  affected  by  this  rule, 
for  they  had  entered  on  their  ministry  since 
the  deprivation  of  bishops  ;  there  is  evidence 
that  many  used  the  interval  to  obtain  ordina- 
tion, which  the  bishops,  in  the  interest  of 
peace,  were  glad  to  confer.  Many  also  had 
been  secretly  ordained  under  the  Common- 
wealth by  bishops  who  were  living  in  privacy, 
but  they  were  men  who  had  looked  forward 
to  the  restoration  of  the  old  order.  The 
real  hardship  was  in  the  numerous  cases  of 


THE    STUARTS  173 

elderly  men  who,  like  the  Westminster 
divines,  had  been  ordained  and  used  the 
Prayer  Book  in  their  earlier  days,  then  for  a 
number  of  years  had  laid  it  aside,  doubtless 
with  pleasure,  and  now  were  bidden  to  resume 
its  use.  Conscience  might  allow  them  to  do 
so,  but  self-respect  would  not.  Yet  their 
choice  was  difficult.  They  might  choose  the 
humiliation  of  adopting  a  mode  of  worship, 
the  inferiority  of  which  they  had  long  been 
proclaiming  by  their  doctrine  and  practice, 
and  incur  the  reproach  of  subordinating 
conscience  to  income.  Or  they  might  choose 
to  sacrifice  their  position,  though  in  so  doing 
they  were  leaving  the  service  of  a  Church  which 
would  still  be,  in  their  eyes,  a  true  national 
Church,  and  were  abandoning  the  work 
to  which,  as  they  believed,  they  had  been 
called  to  devote  their  lives.  We  must  equally 
respect  those  who  decided  in  either  way. 
Among  those  who  refused  to  conform  were 
some  who  may  be  called,  without  paradox, 
higher  churchmen  than  others  who  preferred 
the  opposite  course.  The  number  who  went 
out  is  traditionally  stated  at  2,000,  of  whom 
a  very  large  proportion  were  lawfully  or- 
dained. The  truth  cannot  be  stated  as  yet, 
and  guesses  are  profitless.  The  materials 
are   in   existence   for   discovering   the   facts, 


174  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  doubtless  in  time  the  comprehensive 
study  of  parish  registers  and  other  documents 
will  bring  them  out.  But  it  is  probable 
that  the  whole  number  of  Presbyterians, 
Independents  who  were  not  Separatists,  and 
Separatists  of  various  types — a  certain  number 
of  Baptists  had  been  installed  in  livings — 
who  resigned  their  posts  on  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day,  was  a  good  deal  less  than  is  commonly 
assumed. 

This  severity  was  impolitic.  If  the  self- 
esteem  of  good  men,  who  were  often  fathers 
of  their  parishes,  had  been  sheltered  by 
permission  to  retain  for  their  life  the  use 
to  which  they  had  accustomed  their  parish- 
ioners, a  great  secession  would  have  been 
avoided.  They  were  willing  by  retaining  their 
posts  to  give  their  approval  to  the  activity 
in  the  parishes  around  them  of  men  of  the 
Anglican  school ;  in  the  most  emphatic 
manner  they  would  have  been  showing 
that  they  regarded  them  as  brethren  in  the 
ministry  of  the  same  Church.  They  would 
have  shown  that  in  their  judgment  the 
differences  were  unessential,  and  it  w^ould 
have  been  easy  to  require  their  successors  to 
fall  into  line  with  the  general  discipline. 
Divergence  would  not  have  been  raised  into 
a  matter  of  principle. 


THE    STUARTS  175 

But  the  passions  of  the  Restoration  Parlia- 
ment were  too  heated  for  wise  counsel.  The 
members  were  set  upon  a  violent  reaction ^ 
and  since  they  were  resolved  to  maintain  the 
political  attitude  of  the  Long  Parliament 
the  only  sphere  in  which  they  could  revert 
to  the  model  of  the  past  was  the  ecclesiastical. 
They  outdid  Laud  in  severity,  and  the 
severity  w^as  the  work  neither  of  King  nor 
bishops  but  of  the  Commons,  who  faithfully 
expressed  what  was  for  the  time  the  mind 
of  the  nation.  The  tyranny  of  the  Common- 
wealth, its  government  by  major-generals, 
its  failure  in  all  respects  save  foreign  policy, 
had  exasperated  the  English  people,  and 
Charles  L,  who  had  truly  been  a  martyr  for 
his  Church,  since  he  could  have  turned  the 
scale  and  recovered  his  position  had  he 
been  willing  to  abandon  it  in  favour  of  either 
the  Presbyterian  or  the  Independent  system, 
had  risen  to  be  a  popular  hero.  He  had  lost 
his  life  because  he  would  not  sacrifice  his 
Church,  and  men  were  quite  in  earnest  when 
they  dedicated  churches  to  "  King  Charles 
the  Martyr."  And  with  enthusiasm  for  the 
King  went  eager  acceptance  of  his  archbishop's 
teaching.  It  was  a  Laudian  generation. 
That  scheme  of  faith,  Arminian  and  Anglo- 
Catholic,  was  inculcated  with  massive  learning 


176  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

and  commended  by  graceful  and  romantic 
piety.  But  the  force  of  events  and  the 
tendencies  of  thought  were  to  counteract 
this  revival  and  bring  it  for  a  while  to  nothing. 
The  policy  of  persecution  was  awakening 
a  spirit  of  resistance,  and  a  "  dissenting 
interest,"  which  politicians  turned  to  account, 
was  being  formed.  It  was  a  sign  of  the  times 
when  Charles  II.  in  1672  issued  his  Declaration 
of  Indulgence,  permitting  dissenting  worship, 
and  releasing  those  who  had  broken  the  law, 
and  among  them  John  Bunyan,  who  had 
spent  almost  twelve  years  in  prison.  Though 
Parliament  insisted  on  its  rights  and  compelled 
him  to  withdraw  the  Indulgence,  things  could 
be  no  longer  as  they  had  been.  Toleration, 
once  won,  was  evidently  possible  again,  and 
its  final  achievement  came  seventeen  years 
later.  Uniformity  was  thus  a  fading  hope 
and  tolerance  a  rising  ideal,  which  suited  well 
with  the  new  interests  of  the  age.  For  the  world 
had  grown  weary  of  dogmatists,  and  the 
great  religious  struggle  was  now  a  drawn 
game.  The  last  and  greatest  of  the  wars 
of  religion,  that  of  the  Thirty  Years  in  and 
round  Germany,  had  ended,  in  1648,  in  a 
compromise  whereby  each  side  abandoned 
the  prospect  of  crushing  the  other's  creed 
or  lessening  its  territories.     Henceforth  for 


THE    STUARTS  177 

a  while  the  intelligence  that  for  a  century  and 
a  half  had  been  devoted  to  controversy  turned 
to  natural  science,  which  ignored  the  limita- 
tions of  Churches,  or  to  a  neutral  philosophy 
of  mind.  John  Locke  in  England  had  rivals 
of  like  spirit  to  his  own  in  France  and  Ger- 
many, and  Sir  Isaac  Newton  represented 
among  us  a  movement  that  was  general  in 
civilized  Europe.  Neither  of  them  sympa- 
thized with  the  dogmatic  spirit  of  the  genera- 
tion before  him.  Comprehension  was  the 
object  that  the  rising  school  set  before  itself. 
For  in  defiance  of  the  dominant  Laudianism 
in  the  Church  and  of  the  rigid  Calvinism 
among  Dissenters,  as  they  must  now  be  called, 
the  new  spirit  was  now  at  work  among 
religious  thinkers.  Differences  were  coming 
to  seem  less  serious  in  the  eyes  of  leading 
men,  and  the  seed  of  this  change,  which 
ripened  in  the  eighteenth  century,  were 
sown  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  The  desire 
for  a  compromise  was  naturally  keenest 
among  the  Presbyterians,  for  whom  a  national 
Church  was  part  of  the  Divine  order.  Such 
a  national  Church  stood  before  their  eyes, 
and  they  longed  for  a  place  in  it.  If  it  would 
meet  them  half  way,  they  would  modify 
their  conditions  of  adherence.  They  soon 
recognized  that  they  had  made  a  grotesque 


178  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

blunder  in  insisting  at  the  Savoy  Conference 
of  1661  on  a  complete  surrender  of  the 
churchmen  to  their  desires.  They  were  now 
obviously  the  weaker  party,  and  with  pathetic 
earnestness,  Baxter,  their  leader,  framed  plans 
of  conciliation  by  which  his  followers  might 
return  without  loss  of  honour.  We  need 
not  be  sorry  that  the  negotiations  failed, 
though  a  very  few  grains  of  wisdom  in  his 
opponents  would  have  won  Baxter  himself. 
But  the  reign  of  the  Stuarts  was  to  end 
amid  a  sudden  emergence  of  the  older  motives. 
King  James  II.  violated  the  law  and  strained 
to  breaking-point  a  faith  in  Divine  Right 
which  the  clergy  had  pressed  to  a  Byzantine 
servility.  He  incurred  the  loss  of  his  throne 
on  behalf  of  a  Church  which  welcomed  his 
downfall.  For  Rome  was  again  as  political 
as  in  the  days  of  the  Renaissance,  and  re- 
garded James  less  as  a  champion  of  the  faith 
than  as  an  ally  of  Louis  XIV.,  whose  domi- 
nance was  resented  by  the  Pope  as  that  of 
Philip  11.  had  been  resented  in  the  days  of 
Mary.  James  was  ruined  by  the  delusion 
that  it  was  still  possible  to  dictate  its  religion 
to  a  nation  ;  the  Laudian  party  was  to  be 
driven,  in  this  collapse  of  the  old  ideas,  into 
an  impotent  secession. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

For  the  purposes  of  Church  history  the 
eighteenth  century  begins  with  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1689,  from  which  time  Laudianism 
steadily  decays.  No  period  has  been  so 
systematically  misrepresented.  It  is  com- 
monly asserted  and  widely  believed  that 
degeneracy  of  the  Church  was  the  cause  of  a 
degradation  of  morals.  Morals  were  no  worse 
than  they  had  been  from  Elizabeth  to  Charles 
II.  It  is  said  that  the  stage  and  literature 
were  impure.  They  were  exactly  as  they 
had  been  under  Charles  I.  and  Charles  II. 
Abuses  of  non-residence  and  plurality  are 
regarded  as  characteristic  of  the  century. 
They  were  just  as  prevalent  in  the  seven- 
teenth, being  part  of  the  inheritance  taken 
over  by  Parker  and  his  successors,  arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury,  from  the  Pope,  and 
uniformly  administered  throughout  the  whole 
period  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  save  that  the  archbishops 
179 


180  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

made  no  such  pecuniary  profit  from  licences 
as  the  Popes  had  done.  To  take  one  more 
example,  the  severity  of  the  criminal  law 
is  often  charged  against  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  by  a  confusion  of  thought 
against  the  Church  in  that  century,  as  though 
it  were  peculiar  to  that  time.  The  law 
and  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  carried  out 
had  been  unchanged  for  centuries,  and  were 
to  be  maintained  till  Lord  Romilly's  reforms, 
a  century  ago.  Regarding  the  Church  of  the 
period  in  this  spirit,  its  historians  have  sought 
out  and  chronicled  its  defects,  while  those 
of  its  predecessor  have  been  ignored.  Three 
generations  have  seen  it  with  the  eyes  of  the 
men  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  which  was 
itself  a  phase  of  the  romantic  movement 
of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  best  exempli- 
fied for  Englishmen  in  Scott.  Now  the 
eighteenth  century  was  not  romantic,  and 
was  just  at  the  distance  from  the  Oxford 
divines  at  which  men's  forerunners  show 
most  to  disadvantage.  And  those  divines, 
like  each  successive  ecclesiastical  school  and 
too  many  individual  clergymen,  satisfied 
their  self-esteem  and  pushed  their  cause 
by  depreciating  their  predecessors.  To-day 
that  century  is  gaining  rapidly  in  the  general 
admiration   and  growing  picturesque   before 


THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  181 

our  eyes.  Soon  its  Church  will  share  in  this 
advance,  and  perhaps  its  defects  will  be 
unduly  palliated. 

The  men  who  took  the  lead  after  the 
Revolution  shared  the  spirit  of  the  new  and 
tolerant  age  ;  in  practice  they  cared  for  com- 
prehension, in  principle  for  benevolence. 
The  former  was  once  more  to  be  attempted 
in  vain.  Tillotson's  scheme,  which  would 
have  admitted  the  Presbyterians  and  such 
Independents  (a  dwindling  number)  as  were 
not  Separatists,  met  too  powerful  an  opposi- 
tion among  the  clergy.  Yet  for  a  time 
vague  hopes  remained.  Stillingfleet,  Bishop 
of  Worcester,  was  so  far  from  regarding  the 
Presbyterians  as  aliens  that  he  entered  inta 
their  internal  disputes  and  did  his  best  as 
a  peacemaker,  while  the  sympathy  of  Burnet 
and  others  was  unconcealed,  as  was  their 
recognition  of  the  validity  of  Presbyterian 
orders. 

The  other  novelty,  the  stress  laid  upon  the 
Divine  benevolence,  was  more  important 
than  this  unsuccessful  effort.  The  age  was 
tired  of  dogmatic  quarrels  and  revolted 
by  the  stern  side  of  the  doctrine  of  predesti- 
nation. It  turned  for  relief  to  the  thought 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  in  comparison 
with  which  it  cared  little  for  the  rest  of  the 


182  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

creed.  The  new  interest  in  nature  that 
came  with  the  growth  of  scientific  knowledge 
took  the  form  of  admiration  and  gratitude. 
God's  work  was  obviously  good  ;  men  were 
optimists,  and  they  would  imitate  Him  by 
being  benevolent.  The  Roman  Church,  in 
fact,  had  anticipated  in  practice  the  rest  of 
Western  Christendom  in  this  respect ;  already 
in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  its 
memorable  works  of  charity  had  been  organ- 
ized. But  in  England  benevolence  was  tend- 
ing actually  to  supersede  doctrine.  This  was 
especially  the  case  with  the  Presbyterians, 
in  whose  eyes  the  Fatherhood  of  God  came  to 
seem  contradictory  to  Trinitarian  doctrine. 
They  turned  by  a  slow  process  to  dogmatic 
Unitarianism.  There  was  the  same  trend 
within  the  national  Church,  some  of  whose 
leading  thinkers,  such  as  Whiston,  the  Cam- 
bridge Professor,  and  Clarke,  Rector  of  St. 
James,  Piccadilly,  taught  a  practically  Uni- 
tarian doctrine.  But  this  line  of  thought 
was  carried  to  an  extremity  by  the  Deists. 
Reason  and  conscience  are  Divine  gifts ; 
God  is  good,  and  therefore  His  gifts  are 
adequate  for  all  our  needs.  It  is  presumptu- 
ous to  think  that  more  evidences  of  His  nature 
and  goodness  are  needed.  Christianity  is 
as  old  as  creation,  and  everything  in  it  that 


THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  183 

is  not  primitive  in  that  sense  must  be  rejected. 
But  the  thought  of  benevolence  as  the 
highest  quality  in  God  and  men,  and  of  the 
comparative  unimportance  of  revelation  and 
of  the  evidence  of  history,  was  not  confined 
to  those  who  rebelled.  Such  considerations 
prevailed  also  among  normal  churchmen 
and  were  to  prevail  so  long  as  optimism 
could  be  maintained. 

The  Caroline  ideals,  inspiring  as  they 
were  to  their  holders,  could  not  maintain 
themselves  against  this  new  wave  of  thought, 
and  they  soon  lost  many  of  their  best  advo- 
cates. When  in  1691  Archbishop  Bancroft, 
five  bishops  and  some  400  clergy  suffered 
deprivation  rather  than  take  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  new  monarchs,  which 
they  thought  was  inconsistent  with  their 
duty  to  James,  they  not  only  deprived 
their  sympathizers  who  remained  in  office 
of  a  powerful  support,  but  reduced  them  to 
an  ambiguous  position.  In  their  own  eyes, 
and  in  those  of  the  public,  the  Laudian 
conformists  had  taken  a  doubtful  course, 
and  men  in  that  predicament  cannot  argue 
boldly.  But  they  worked  bravely.  London 
parishes  have  never  been  better  administered 
than  under  William  III.  and  Anne,  while 
the  voluntary  lay  work  of  *'  Religious  Socie- 


184  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

ties "    and    "  Societies    for   the   Reformation 
of   Manners "    was    powerful  for  good.     The 
majority    of    the    working    clergy    were    of 
this  school,  and  it  was  not  their  fault  that 
the  laity  and  the  younger  members  of  their 
own   order   were   drifting   away   from  them. 
Even   had   Sancroft   and   his   Non- jurors  re- 
mained at  their  head,  the  result  could  not 
have  been  different.     The  spirit  of  the  age 
was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.     They  were  in  a 
backwater,    and    though    they    might    have 
freshened  its  current,  they  would  still  have 
been  outside  the  main  stream  of  English  life. 
But  if  the  High  Church  cause,  as  it  had 
come  to  be  called,   was  a  declining  one,   it 
made  a  keen  struggle,   which  was  as  much 
inspired  by  political  as  by  religious  motives, 
against    its    opponents.     There    was    rivalry 
between  Whig  bishops  and  Tory  clergy  for 
the  government  of  the  Church.     The  former 
were  at  a  disadvantage  in  learning,  for  they 
had  no  one  save  Stillingfleet  as  a  counterpoise 
to  the  weight  of  knowledge  inherited  by  their 
opponents  from  the  generation  of  Charles  II.  ; 
while    as    champions    of    foreign    monarchs, 
William  III.  and  George  I.,  they  were  unpopu- 
lar not  only  with  Jacobites  but  with  a  multi- 
tude  who   would   not,    though  discontented, 
run   the   risks   of  treason.     They  were   jJko 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    185 

hampered  by  the  hostility  of  the  Lower  House 
of  the  Canterbury  Convocation,  for  that  of 
York,  as  usual,  had  little  influence.  William, 
whether  or  no  he  were  a  Calvinist,  was  a 
member  of  the  Calvinist  Church  of  Holland, 
and  entrusted  a  commission  ot  his  Whig 
bishops  with  the  charge  of  exercising  his 
patronage,  and  with  the  composition  of  the 
injunctions  which  he  issued,  in  Elizabethan 
style,  to  the  bishops  for  their  instruction  in 
the  discharge  of  their  duties.  This  royal 
intrusion  into  the  spiritual  domain  so  irritated 
the  Lower  House  of  Convocation  that  the 
government  deemed  it  politic  to  suspend 
the  sittings.  Under  William,  the  Convoca- 
tions rarely  assembled. 

Under  Anne  the  Lower  House  was  still 
turbulent,  and  caused  grave  trouble  to 
her  ministers.  It  had  censured  Burnet 
in  William's  day  ;  under  Anne,  in  pursuit 
of  the  same  policy  of  attacking  the  "  Lati- 
tudinarians,"  as  the  Whig  leaders  of  the 
Church  were  called,  it  made  an  attack  on 
"  Occasional  Conformity,"  which  for  a  mo- 
ment, in  her  last  year,  was  successful.  The 
Test  Act  had  made  reception  of  the  Holy 
Communion,  as  an  evidence  of  church  member- 
ship in  candidates  for  office,  a  legal  necessity. 
The  Presbyterians,  among  whom  were  many 


186  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  principal  merchants  who  were  likely 
to  be  chosen  to  such  offices  as  that  of  Lord 
Mayor  or  Alderman  of  London,  had  no  ob- 
jection to  compliance.  In  fact,  compliance 
was  in  strict  accordance  with  their  principles, 
for  they  held  that  England  had,  as  it  ought 
to  have,  a  national  Church  ;  they  regretted 
that  certain  of  its  peculiarities  forbad  them 
to  adhere  to  it,  but  they  were  glad  to  recog- 
nize its  character  by  partaking  at  intervals 
in  its  most  sacred  service.  When  the  High 
Churchmen  raised  this  difficulty  for  the  Pres- 
byterians they  had  the  satisfaction  of  censuring 
the  bishops,  whose  desire  had  been  to  bring 
about  a  comprehension  whereby  Anglicans  and 
Presbyterians  might  have  combined  in  one. 

But  the  chief  cause  of  friction  was  a  con- 
stitutional question.  Historically  speaking, 
a  Convocation  is  but  one  house,  for  the  clergy, 
like  Lords  and  Commons,  are  one  estate. 
But  from  early  times  the  bishops  and  the 
lower  clergy  have  agreed  to  sit  apart,  and  the 
latter  have  found  it  necessary  for  the  conduct 
of  business  to  elect  a  "  Prolocutor,*'  or 
speaker.  But  they  are  still  one  house ; 
they  meet  as  such  at  the  beginning  of  their 
session,  and  again  at  the  end  if  any  canons 
which  have  received  royal  assent  are  to  be 
promulgated.     And    being    one    house    they 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    187 

have  one  president,  the  Archbishop;  the 
Prolocutor,  who  is  chosen  by  the  clergy, 
cannot  act  till  the  Archbishop  has  approved 
his  appointment.  In  fact,  the  Archbishop 
has  an  authority  in  the  whole  business  that 
would  certainly  have  been  attacked,  and 
probably  reduced,  had  Convocation  been 
actively  and  continuously  engaged  on  practical 
affairs.  This  unity  of  Convocation  was  a 
sad  clog  upon  the  ambitions  of  the  High 
Church  majority,  who  did  their  best  to  raise 
themselves  into  a  distinct  and  co-ordinate 
body,  with  rights  independent  of  those  of  the 
bishops.  The  Lower  House  would  then  have 
stood  to  the  Upper  as  the  Commons  to  the 
Lords.  There  would  have  been  two  estates 
of  the  clerg}^  and  the  lower  would  have 
neutralized  the  higher.  This  case  was  urged 
with  ability  and  passion  by  Atterbury  and 
others,  and  was  conclusively  refuted  by 
Wake,  yet  the  Tory  majority  in  Parliament 
voted  that  the  false  history  of  the  matter 
was  the  true  one.  In  fact,  Tory  policy, 
with  the  Pretender  in  the  background,  was 
so  intimately  entwined  with  High  Church 
aims  that  when  the  brief  dream  of  Tory 
domination  ended  with  the  death  of  Anne, 
it  was  almost  inevitable  that  Convocation, 
whose  Lower  House  had  become  the  mouth- 


188  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

piece,  if  not  the  tool,  of  a  political  party, 
should  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  victors. 
There  was  abundant  excuse  in  the  acrimony 
of  debate  for  the  prorogation  of  1717,  after 
which  Convocation,  though  members  of  the 
Lower  Houses  were  formally  elected  with 
each  new  Parliament,  never  met  again,  till 
1855  in  the  case  of  Canterbury,  and  1863 
of  York.  There  was  no  practical  inconveni- 
ence to  the  government  in  this  suppression, 
for  the  Convocations,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
ceased  to  vote  the  taxes  of  the  clergy.  And 
we  may  doubt  whether,  in  their  exasperation, 
the  High  Church  majority  might  not  have 
used  freedom  of  debate  to  implicate  them- 
selves more  deeply  in  Jacobite  intrigue 
and  so  to  alienate  the  nation.  This  would 
have  been  even  more  disastrous  than  the 
lethargy  which  undoubtedly  came  to  pervade 
the  Church.  But  since  this  was  equally 
prevalent  through  Europe,  both  reformed 
and  unreformed,  we  need  not  think  that 
a  local  circumstance,  such  as  the  silencing 
of   Convocation,    was   mainly   operative. 

While  the  High  Church  impulse  was  grow- 
ing weak,  the  preachers  of  benevolence  and 
optimism  were  soon  also  a  decaying  force. 
One  of  the  most  overwhelming  of  controversial 
victories    was   that   won   by   the    Christians 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    189 

over  the  Deists  in  an  argument  which  was 
worked  out  by  1740,  the  most  effective 
champion  on  the  side  of  revelation  being 
Bishop  Butler  with  his  immortal  "  Analogy." 
Now  Deism  was  a  form  of  the  prevailing  opti- 
mism ;  it  preached  the  benevolence  of  an 
impersonal  God.  In  opposing  it  the  orthodox 
reasoners,  perhaps  inevitably,  shook  the 
current  optimism.  Butler  himself  was  prone 
to  despondency,  as  when  he  uttered  his 
famous  lament  over  "  the  general  decay  of 
religion  in  this  nation."  But  it  was  not 
only  the  thinkers  who  were  losing  their 
buoyancy.  Throughout  Europe  the  same 
sense  of  sadness  was  experienced.  The  thought 
that  all  is  for  the  best  in  the  world,  which 
had  been  current  both  among  the  religious 
and  the  non-religious,  was  ceasing  to  seem 
plausible,  just  as  the  optimism  of  Browning 
sounds  hollow  to  our  generation.  Voltaire 
made  it  the  butt  of  his  satire  in  "  Candide," 
and  so  gave  voice  to  the  common  feeling 
of  disappointment  with  life.  But  there  was 
a  darker  side  to  this  reaction  in  thought. 
Men  came  to  live  under  the  fear  of  death. 
It  was  a  topic  which  had  an  extraordinary 
vogue  in  the  literature  of  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Blair's  "  Grave,"  Har- 
vey's    "  Meditations     among    the    Tombs," 


190  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Gesner's  "  Death  of  Abel,"  were  among  the 
most  popular  books  of  their  day,  and  they 
are  but  samples  of  a  whole  library  of  the 
charnel-house.  The  earthquake  of  Lisbon 
in  1755  was  much  less  terrible  than  that  of 
Messina  in  1908,  yet  while  the  latter  merely 
excited  a  thrill  of  natural  sympathy,  the 
former  stirred  a  deep  and  universal  dread. 

An  England  where  men  had  lost  their 
former  optimism  and  were  living  under  a 
shadow  of  fear,  was  ripe  for  a  revival  of 
religion.  That  revival  was  to  be  affected 
by  the  characteristic  churchmanship  of  the 
age.  Benjamin  Hoadly,  ultimately  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  stirred  up  a  strife  which  was 
called  the  "  Bangorian  Controversy,"  from 
the  see  he  occupied  in  1716,  when  it  broke 
out.  No  names  have  been  too  hard  for  him, 
but  what  embittered  Non -jurors  in  his  own 
day  and  High  Churchmen  since,  was  his 
success.  He  taught  with  wide  acceptance 
that  religion  is  a  purely  personal  matter, 
and  that  Churches  are  only  the  unessential 
requisites  for  its  organization.  Far  as  the 
Evangelicals  were  from  sympathizing  with  his 
cold  religion,  this  part  of  his  teaching  long 
survived  among  them.  Till  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  it  was  no  uncommon 
opinion    among    Calvinist    churchmen    that 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    191 

all  Protestant  Churches  and  ministries  are 
equally  valid,  but  that,  having  freedom  of 
choice,  a  patriotic  Christian  will  choose  the 
Church  of  his  King  and  country. 

Thus,  when  the  Evangelical  movement 
began,  it  found  a  nation  taught  in  high 
quarters,  and  well  disposed  to  believe,  that 
ecclesiastical  order  is  not  a  matter  of  principle, 
and  that  the  law,  laid  down  in  1661,  by  which 
ministration  in  English  churches  and  the 
holding  of  English  benefices  is  limited  to 
persons  in  episcopal  orders,  is  only  a  discip- 
linary measure.  Hence  it  was  natural  that 
projects  for  reunion  should  be  framed 
and  cherished.  That  which  has  attracted 
most  attention  in  later  times  was  Archbishop 
Wake's  courteous  approach  to  the  French 
Church,  creditable  to  both  sides  and  neces- 
sarily futile.  But  Wake  was  equally  eager 
to  meet  advances  from  the  Protestant  Church 
of  Prussia,  and  was  more  nearly  successful. 
The  point  of  contact  was  the  common  interest 
of  Prussians  and  Englishmen  in  the  little 
Moravian  Church.  Early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  these  "  United  Brethren,"  who  have 
an  episcopate  of  obscure  origin,  were  entering 
on  the  career  of  beneficent  activity  that  has 
made  them  deservedly  famous.  The  fact 
that    they    had    bishops    attracted    English 


192    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

churchmen.  Successive  archbishops  of  Can- 
terbury were  their  friends,  and,  finally,  in 
1749,  an  Act  of  Parliament  proclaimed  that 
they  were  a  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
and  relieved  them  from  the  disabilities 
under  which  Dissenters  laboured  by  law, 
though  not  in  practice.  Their  piety  was, 
indeed,  of  a  type  more  attractive  to  the 
English  mind  than  to  the  German.  Wake's 
hope  was  to  draw  closer  the  bonds  between 
England,  the  head  of  the  Protestant  interest 
in  Europe,  and  Prussia,  whose  king  was  the 
Protestant  potentate  second  in  importance, 
by  bestowing  an  episcopate,  as  inconspicuous 
as  that  of  the  Moravians,  on  the  Prussian 
Church.  Nothing  came  of  it,  for  the  imagi- 
native king  of  Prussia  died  in  1713,  before 
the  scheme  was  carried  out,  and  his  successor 
was  indifferent.  But  the  influence  of  the 
Moravians  was  increased  in  England,  and 
when  John  Wesley  in  1739  submitted  to  their 
guidance  he  was  behaving  in  the  spirit  of  the 
normal  churchmanship  of  his  day.  For  the 
two  societies  which  represented  the  Caroline 
tradition,  those  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  and  for  the  Promotion 
of  Christian  Knowledge,  subsidized  Lutheran 
missionaries  to  Southern  India,  for  want  of 
English,  throughout  the  eighteenth  century; 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    193 

and  though  Moravians  had  bishops  and 
Lutherans  had  none,  there  was  a  close  affinity 
between  them.  And  the  fact  that  Moravians 
were  Arminian  encouraged  the  same  indiffer- 
ence to  confessional  barriers  among  English 
churchmen  of  Arminian  mind  that  was 
engendered  among  English  Calvinists  by  the 
teaching  of  Hoadly.  Thus,  when  we  turn  to 
the  revival  of  religion  in  England,  we  find 
in  it  nothing  novel.  It  was  a  quickening  of 
existing  modes  of  feeling.  The  lines  on  which 
it  advanced  were  already  laid  in  Laudianism 
and  Calvinism.  The  opposition  between  the 
two,  whether  we  regard  it  as  stimulating 
both  or  as  neutralizing  their  effectiveness,  was 
after  the  ancient  fashion,  and  w^as  never  more 
strenuous  than  when  the  followers  of  Wesley 
and  of  Whitefield  engaged  in  the  strife.  For 
the  principles  of  Arminius  and  those  of  St. 
Augustine,  as  developed  by  the  Calvinists,  were 
incompatible.  The  history,  as  it  regards  the 
Church  of  England,  is  that  of  the  victory  of 
Whitefield's  Calvinism  and  the  elimination 
of  Wesley's  Arminianism. 

John  Wesley  was  brought  up  in  a  Laudian 
home.  His  father  and  his  mother  were 
of  Calvinist  parentage,  children  of  sufferers 
by  the  exclusion  of  1662.  Both  had  rebelled 
against  the  grim  predestination  doctrine  in 


194  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

which  they  had  been  reared,  and  the  mother 
had  even  passed  through  that  Socinian 
stage  of  devotion  to  the  thought  of  Divine 
benevolence  which  was  the  frequent  result 
of  reaction  from  Calvinism.  The  son  through- 
out his  career,  in  which  he  passed  through 
several  stages  of  religious  conviction,  never 
hesitated  in  his  belief  in  free  grace  for 
all.  He  was  consistently  Laudian  in  this. 
But  he  abandoned  the  rest  of  the  Laudian 
heritage.  He  adopted,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, Hoadly's  doctrine  of  the  un- 
importance of  organization.  So  far  as  it 
served  his  turn,  he  was  loyal  to  his  Church  ; 
when  it  seemed  that  an  independent  system 
would  better  hold  his  converts  together  he 
developed  his  own  society  to  a  point  where 
separation  was  inevitable.  And  in  reasoning 
out  his  scheme  he  came  to  the  very  conclusion 
by  which  the  Presbyterians  had  justified 
their  nonconformity.  He  convinced  himself 
of  the  truth  of  the  Calvinist  doctrine  of  the 
parity  of  ministers,  and  asserted  that  he  had 
as  good  a  right  to  ordain  as  to  celebrate  the 
Holy  Communion.  It  is  true  that  he  exercised 
it  to  a  very  small  extent,  ordaining,  in  his  old 
age,  a  few  of  his  followers  for  the  ministry  of 
his  society,  and  that  he  sincerely  believed  him- 
self  to  be   a  loyal   member  of  the  English 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    195 

Church.  But  the  whole  tendency  of  his  work 
had  been  towards  separation,  and  his  teaching 
on  the  nature  of  the  Church,  combining  as  it  did 
the  doctrines  of  Hoadly  and  of  Calvin,  would 
furnish  reasons  to  justify  the  measure  which 
his  followers  were  eager  to  take.  For  Wesley, 
churchman  as  he  was,  had  been  quite  indiffer- 
ent to  churchmanship  in  the  preachers  whom 
he  chose.  Few  of  them  had  been  attached 
members  of  his  Church  before  they  joined 
him  ;  many  had  been  Dissenters,  and  he  had 
excited  hostility  among  the  dissenting  bodies 
by  enticing  from  them,  as  they  regarded  it, 
their  hopeful  recruits.  But  most  of  the 
preachers  had  been  rescued  from  a  careless 
life,  and  their  first  and  only  religious  interest 
was  in  the  Methodist  Society.  Whether  they 
had  been  indifferent  or  Dissenters,  they  had 
no  bond  of  affection  to  attach  them  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and  it  was  inevitable 
that  they  should  desire  to  make  their  Society 
complete  in  itself,  administering  its  own 
sacraments  as  well  as  maintaining  its  own 
discipline. 

The  schism  was  the  more  certain  to  come 
because  no  strong  party  in  the  Church  held 
out  its  hand  to  Wesley  and  his  followers. 
The  Laudians,  diminishing  in  number  and 
weight,    had    no    enthusiasm    of    their    own 


196  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

that  could  inspire  them  to  welcome  the 
enthusiasm  of  Wesley,  and  his  Laudianism 
on  the  point  of  Arminian  doctrine  could  not 
blind  them  to  his  grave  divergence  from  their 
general  position.  And  outside  the  Laudian 
circle  Arminianism  was  regarded  as  error. 
Augustinianism  had  the  weight  of  tradition 
behind  it.  It  had  been  defended  and  ex- 
pounded in  massive  volumes,  and  had,  it 
may  almost  be  said,  an  oecumenical  accept- 
ance in  the  reformed  world.  In  the  English 
Church  there  was,  before  the  Methodist 
movement  began,  an  Augustinian  party, 
weaker  than  the  dominant  Latitudinarians 
and  probably  weaker  than  the  Laudians, 
but  a  party  that  had  a  future  before  it  because 
it  thi-ew  itself  heartily  into  the  revival  of 
religion. 

While  the  Laudian  school  needed  to  be 
resuscitated,  almost  from  extinction,  by  the 
Oxford  Movement,  its  rival,  the  Evangelical 
school,  has  had  a  continuity  of  vigorous 
existence  from  the  days  when  it  recognized 
and  welcomed  a  kindred  spirit  in  Whitefield. 
For  Evangelicalism  means  that  side  of  the 
revival  which  was  hostile  to  Wesley  and  his 
teaching  of  free  grace.  George  Whitefield, 
unlike  Wesley,  started  without  any  keen 
appreciation    of    the    Church    to    which    he 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    197 

happened  to  belong.  He  never  had  any 
scruples  about  Church  discipline,  and  was 
quite  as  much  at  home  among  Presbyterians 
in  Scotland  or  America  as  in  his  own  com- 
munion. He  never  felt  the  need  of  working 
out  for  himself  an  ecclesiastical  theory  by 
which  to  justify  a  change  of  attitude.  From 
first  to  last  the  essential  thing  in  his  eye 
was  the  system  of  doctrine  that  was  the 
common  heritage  of  orthodox  Protestants, 
and  the  English  Church  for  him  was  simply  a 
member  of  this  federation  of  churches.  There- 
fore it  was  a  valid  communion,  and  therefore 
also  it  was  Calvinist  on  the  point  of  predesti- 
nation. When  Whitefield  first  came  forward 
he  found  sympathizers  among  the  clergy 
in  much  greater  numbers  than  Wesley,  and 
there  was  a  steady  increase  of  the  school  for 
a  full  century.  In  1740  came  his  breach 
with  Wesley,  due  to  nothing  else  than  in- 
compatible doctrines,  for  the  two  men  recog- 
nized each  other's  devotion ;  in  1840  the 
Evangelicals  were  dominant  in  the  Church 
in  England.  Whitefield  was  at  his  weakest 
in  organization,  where  Wesley  excelled.  The 
only  lasting  society  formed  by  him  was  that 
of  the  Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists,  whose 
corporate  strength  may  be  attributed  to 
Whitefield's    abandonment    of    control    over 


198  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

his  creation.  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon's 
Connexion,  the  corresponding  body  for  Eng- 
land, is  a  mere  subsection  of  the  Independents. 
The  Independents  were  to  play  a  consider- 
able part  in  the  Evangelical  revival.  Their 
course  had  been  straightforward ;  while 
the  Presbyterians  had  diverged  into  the 
thought  of  benevolence  and  ultimately  into 
Unitarianism,  they  had  held  fast  to  the 
Westminster  Confession  and  the  Calvinist 
doctrine.  They  were  humbler  people,  less 
influenced  by  education  and  social  position, 
and  so  immune  from  the  influences  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  As  an  undoubtedly 
orthodox  body,  they  seemed  to  churchmen 
who  attached  little  importance  to  principles 
of  association  a  suitable  instrument.  Hence, 
when  Evangelical  clergy,  such  as  Henry 
Venn,  Berridge  and  Grimshaw,  found  that 
many  of  their  converts  lived  at  too  great  a 
distance  to  attend  their  churches  they  encour- 
aged the  foundation  of  Independent  chapels, 
not  because  they  were  Independent,  but  as 
a  substitute  for  what  could  not  otherwise 
be  supplied.  For  the  establishment  of  a 
new  parish  was  practically  impossible.  It 
needed  nothing  less  than  an  Act  of  Parliament. 
A  parish  was  a  civil  as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical 
division,  and  the  incumbent  officially  presided 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    199 

over  a  body  which,  since  Tudor  times  and 
especially  since  Elizabeth,  maintained  the 
poor,  repaired  the  roads,  and  levied  rates 
which  till  1813  were  enforced  in  ecclesiastical 
com*ts  by  the  penalty  of  excommunication  ; 
a  serious  punishment,  for  the  culprit  could 
not  compel  the  payment  of  debts  due  to  him 
till  he  had  redeemed  his  fault.  Independent 
ministers,  then,  served  as  what  we  call  lay 
readers,  and  churchmen  supported  an  Inde- 
pendent college  for  training  such  men  ;  on 
neither  side  was  there  any  thought  of  incon- 
gruity. It  seemed  right  and  natural  that 
the  clergy  should  so  supplement  their  services. 
This  feeling  was  equally  strong  among  those 
who  were  content  within  the  Church  and 
those  who  were  on,  or  over,  the  edge  of 
separation.  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon, 
Whitefield's  chief  supporter,  founded  her  own 
college  at  Trevecca  for  the  cheap  education 
of  ministers  either  for  church  or  chapel. 
So  long  as  they  were  in  earnest  and  soundly 
Calvinistic  her  purpose  was  fulfilled.  White- 
lield  himself  and  still  more  his  most  vigorous 
successor,  Rowland  Hill,  were  on  the  border 
line  ;  Hill's  "  Surrey  Chapel  "  is  now  a  strong- 
hold of  Congregationalism.  But  whether  they 
left  the  Church  early  or  late,  this  contact 
with  Independency  led  in  the  long  run  to 


200  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

a  very  large  secession.  The  ministers  came 
to  attach  importance  to  their  own  office, 
to  feel  that  they  would  be  more  useful  if 
they  were  their  own  masters,  and  to  resent 
the  barrier  between  themselves  and  their 
clerical  patrons.  Practical  considerations, 
not  theories  as  to  the  ministry,  led  to  this 
loss. 

But  in  spite  of  the  secession  to  Independency 
of  a  great  number  of  serious  men,  the  Evange- 
lical cause  within  the  Church  increased  in 
strength.  From  the  first  it  had  been  strong, 
where  Arminian  Methodism  was  weak,  in 
clerical  adherents.  These  steadily  increased 
in  numbers  and  in  weight  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  century,  and  secured  a  succession 
by  gaining  a  hold  on  Cambridge  University. 
From  1770,  at  the  latest,  the  future  was 
theirs,  and  their  influence  grew  for  two 
generations  and  more.  They  had  no  serious 
rivals  within  the  Church.  Intellectual  opposi- 
tion took  the  form,  predestined  to  failure,  of 
a  revival  of  Unitarian  thought.  The  old 
repugnance  to  Calvinism  gave  fresh  life  to 
an  unbalanced  insistence  on  the  Fatherhood 
of  God.  There  was  an  agitation  for  relief 
from  doctrinal  subscription  on  the  part  of 
the  clergy,  which  was  unsuccessful  and 
was  followed  by  a  secession  of  able  men  in 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    201 

1T73.  But  all  did  not  secede.  There  were 
bishops  both  in  England  and  in  Ireland  who 
were  almost  Unitarian,  and  they  had  many 
followers.  Nor  was  the  Arminian  opposition 
within  the  Church  serious,  for  the  Arminians 
were  either  silent  people  or  followers  of 
Wesley  and  therefore  seceders.  The  strife 
had  been,  in  fact,  so  violent  that  it  was  practi- 
cally impossible  for  the  two  parties,  or  at 
least  the  keener  partisans,  to  be  at  home 
in  the  same  Church.  The  Calvinists  won  and 
the  others  departed.  Yet  there  remained, 
almost  unnoticed,  a  multitude  of  quiet  and 
sensible  churchmen  outside  the  clamour  of 
party,  such  as  Dr.  Johnson,  and  in  due  time 
they  were  to  make  their  voice  heard,  and 
be  the  forerunners  of  nineteenth  century 
reforms. 

But  the  Evangelicals  themselves  were 
to  undergo  an  important  change.  They  won 
their  position  by  their  preaching  of  one 
doctrine  ;  they  consolidated  it  while  holding 
another.  When  the  missionary  impulse  grew 
strong,  Calvinism  was  doomed.  Through 
most  of  the  century  it  slumbered  ;  the  old 
societies  of  the  Church  quietly  carried  on  an 
inconspicuous  work,  most  of  which  was  for 
the  benefit  of  English  colonists  abroad. 
But  to-ward  the  end  of  the  century  all  the 


202  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Evangelical  communions  were  touched  by 
the  new  enthusiasm,  and  in  spite  of  the 
resistance  of  consistent  Calvinists,  who  held 
that  God  would  save  those  who  were  to  be 
saved,  and  that  it  was  presumptuous  in  men 
to  interfere,  each  in  turn,  led  by  the  Baptists 
in  1792,  founded  its  missionary  society. 
The  Church  Missionary  Society  was  estab- 
lished in  1799.  This  more  humane  view  of 
Christianity  led  those  who  welcomed  it  into 
the  paths  of  philanthropy.  The  Evangelical 
party  has  no  more  honourable  names  than 
such  as  Hannah  More,  William  Wilberforce, 
and  the  Clapham  bankers,  whose  labours 
brightened  and  elevated  the  life  of  the 
English  poor  and  released  the  slaves. 

Though  Calvinism,  except  in  theory,  dis- 
appeared from  the  Evangelical  mind,  the 
domination  of  the  school  was  not  altogether 
for  good.  They  despised  learning  and  their 
contributions  to  literature  were  not  marked 
by  good  taste  or  serious  thought.  As  a  body 
they  were  intensely  conservative  ;  this  was, 
indeed,  the  general  mood  of  orthodox  people, 
for  Unitarianism  and  Whiggery  were  closely 
allied.  They  were  no  reformers  of  the  abuses 
of  the  Church,  and  they  did  little  to  combat 
the  great  evil  of  the  age,  the  failure  of  religion 
to  cope  with  the  rapid  gro^vth  of  industrial 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    203 

towns.  Too  much  of  the  ability  of  the 
school  was  devoted  to  select  congregations 
in  proprietary  chapels,  and  the  study  of 
"  unfulfilled  prophecy  "  consumed  time  that 
might  have  been  more  profitably  spent. 

In  the  externals  of  religion  the  Evangelicals 
made  no  change.  We  are  apt  to  judge  the 
century  too  harshly  for  its  demerits  in  such 
matters  as  architecture,  but  our  country 
only  exemplified  in  a  more  moderate  degree 
than  some  others  a  phase  through  which  all 
Europe  was  passing.  Against  ugliness  in 
this  respect  we  may  set  the  development  of 
church  music,  in  which  England  fully  shared, 
and  also  the  interest  in  church  bells.  The 
eighteenth  century  was  the  great  era  of  bell- 
founding,  and  in  it  the  art  of  change-ringing 
was  brought  to  perfection.  A  further  evi- 
dence of  care  for  the  churches  was  the  frequent 
gift  of  good  copies  of  famous  pictures,  and  of 
originals  that  were  at  least  respectable,  to 
adorn  the  altar  ;  too  many  of  these  have 
been  unworthily  displaced  in  favour  of  clumsy 
imitations  of  mediaeval  work  in  wood  or 
stone. 

The  abuses  of  plurality  and  the  like  must 
also,  in  equity,  be  judged  by  comparison 
with  endowed  churches  elsewhere.  They  were 
symptomatic  of  the  age.     England  was  re- 


204  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

spectable  in  comparison  with  France,  and 
if  a  few  county  families  were  founded  out  of 
the  economies  of  Canterbury  and  York, 
they  are  insignificant  in  comparison  with 
the  stately  palace,  with  corresponding  reven- 
ues, that  each  successive  Pope  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  century  bequeathed 
to  his  nephew  out  of  the  savings  of  a  brief 
pontificate.  The  clergy,  as  in  all  former 
periods,  were  drawn  from  every  social  class. 
Satirists  have  been  too  easily  believed  when 
they  drew  pictures  of  their  humiliating  posi- 
tion. What  was  true  of  many  was  not  true 
of  the  whole  body.  The  better  livings  were 
held,  as  before,  by  sons  of  the  county  gentry, 
by  fellows  of  colleges,  or  by  hereditary  clergy, 
for  many  advowsons  had  belonged  to  one 
clerical  family  almost  from  the  Reformation. 
A  frequent  survival  from  the  century  is  a 
stately  rectory,  often  too  large  for  its  modem 
occupant.  For  a  clergyman  who  had  influence 
enough  to  get  one  living  often  got  a  second ; 
the  archbishops  still  exercised  without  dis- 
crimination their  Papal  power  of  granting 
licences  in  plurality.  But  in  parishes  adjacent 
to  these  prosperous  incumbencies  might  be 
seen  glebe  houses  that  were  mere  cottages, 
yet  well  suited  to  the  social  and  economic 
condition  of  their  modest  occupants  ;    while 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY    205 

in  many  parishes  the  house  had  disappeared 
and  the  duty  was  performed  by  a  curate, 
who  might  be  waiting  for  an  assured  Hving 
or  vaguely  hoping  that  some  patron  would 
notice  him.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  in  an 
age  which  offered  few  openings  for  ability 
without  capital  or  influence,  many  men 
took  orders  in  a  speculative  spirit.  They 
did  not  always  adorn  their  calling ;  but 
certainly  a  career  was  open  to  men  of  talent. 
Far  more  archbishops  and  bishops  in  the 
eighteenth  century  were  of  humble  ante- 
cedents than  in  the  nineteenth.  An  un- 
emotional England  was  in  the  main  well 
served  by  men  who  practised  and  taught  a 
Christianity  that  appealed  by  its  very  limita- 
tions to  the  age.  Their  merit  was  not  the 
less  that  among  their  contemporaries  were 
others,  themselves  labouring  under  limitations 
equally  grave,  who  satisfied  that  emotional 
need  of  which  mankind  was  becoming  increas- 
ingly conscious  from  the  middle  of  the 
century.  It  was  to  be  the  task  of  later 
generations  to  reconcile,  so  far  as  might 
be  possible,  the  two  standards  of  Christian 
service  and  feeling. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

In  England,  as  elsewhere,  the  French  Revolu- 
tion of  1789  was  a  turning-point  of  thought. 
After  some  fluctuation  of  feeling,  the  nation 
turned  with  invincible  repugnance  from  its 
principles  as  well  as  its  horrors.  There  was 
for  a  generation  a  recoil  from  change.  Legis- 
lative reform  ceased  ;  it  seemed  that  if  a 
breach  were  made  in  the  walls  of  tradition 
the  fabric  of  society  might  collapse.  But  at 
the  same  time  there  was  an  increasing  serious- 
ness of  thought,  and  a  heightened  sense  of 
religion  in  those  who  were  inspired  by  the 
Christian  faith,  and  of  the  preservative 
value  of  religion  in  those  whose  interests 
were  secular.  The  religious  bodies,  in  fact, 
were  bulwarks  of  society.  It  is  the  frequent 
boast  of  the  Methodists  that  it  was  their 
influence  over  the  working  classes  that  saved 
England  from  the  apostasy  of  France  ;  and 
if  this  be  only  a  partial  truth  they  certainly 
co-operated  powerfully  with  the  Church  in 
20G 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    207 

maintaining  English  Christianity  and  the 
EngHsh  constitution.  For  the  Church  has 
never  been  more  influential  than  then.  The 
sense  of  responsibility  raised  the  standard 
of  clerical  work,  and  if  many  of  the  laity 
rallied  round  the  Church  from  a  mere  con- 
servative impulse,  they  often  came  to  be 
attached  by  higher  motives  to  its  life.  One 
effect  of  the  Revolution  was  that  the  clergy 
were  held  in  higher  esteem  as  a  body.  They 
were  regarded  as  commissioned  officers  in  the 
army  of  resistance  to  atheism  and  anarchy, 
and  the  social  status  of  the  humbler  among 
them  rose  accordingly.  We  have  seen  that 
a  large  proportion  had  always  belonged 
to  the  higher  ranks.  It  was  now  assumed 
that  all,  because  they  were  clergy,  were  on 
the  same  level.  A  consequence  of  this  was 
that  the  humbler  clergy  decreased  in  number 
through  the  increasing  desire  of  members 
of  the  wealthier  class  to  enter  Holy  Orders. 
The  dominant  types  of  teaching  were 
Evangelicalism  of  the  Calvinist  type,  which 
was  steadily  gaining  in  popularity,  and  the 
old-fashioned  churchmanship  taught  at  the 
Universities,  where  Evangelicals  were  in  a 
minority,  though  at  Cambridge,  unlike  Oxford, 
they  controlled  certain  colleges.  This  older 
churchmanship    was    itself    of    two    marked 


208  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

varieties.  That  which  was  the  heir  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  at  first  the  more 
important.  It  had  been  vivified  by  the  fresh 
stir  of  thought  and  by  competition  with 
EvangeHcal  fervour,  but  it  remained  cool 
and  critical  and  had  little  reverence  for 
tradition.  Of  this  spirit  were  H.  H.  Milman, 
ultimately  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  who  shocked 
many  of  the  devout  by  picturing  the  heroes 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  real  men,  and  not 
as  vague  and  typical  objects  of  reverence. 
Such  also  was  Herbert  Marsh,  Cambridge 
Professor  of  Divinity  and  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, who  introduced  German  criticism 
of  the  New  Testament  to  English  readers. 
Such  also  were  the  Oxford  "  Noetics,"  of 
Oriel,  against  whose  mode  of  thought  the 
Oxford  Movement  of  1833  was  to  be  a  reaction. 
Men  of  this  type,  priding  themselves  on 
looking  facts  in  the  face,  were  often  practical 
reformers  in  the  Church  and  sympathizers 
with  reform  in  the  State.  None  was  more 
practical  than  Blomfield,  who  died  as  Bishop 
of  London.  By  his  own  activity  and  by  his 
influence  on  legislation  he  was  to  be  powerful 
for  good.  Among  the  devices  of  such  men 
as  Marsh  and  Blomfield  for  increasing  the 
efficiency  of  the  clergy  was  the  revival  of  the 
ancient  and  almost  extinct  office  of  Rural 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    209 

Dean.  If  it  has  been  less  effectual  than  was 
hoped,  it  is  at  any  rate  a  memorial  of  the 
zeal  of  the  generation  which  preceded  the 
Oxford  Movement. 

While  these  men  looked  to  the  eighteenth, 
the  other  school  which  opposed  the  Evangeli- 
cal predominance  looked  to  the  seventeenth 
century.  They  were  the  heirs  of  the  Caroline 
tradition,  High  Churchmen  whom  the  self- 
sufficiency  of  their  successors  branded  as 
"  High  and  Dry."  They  were  grave  and 
well-read  men,  with  a  power  of  attracting 
prosperous  laymen  to  their  cause ;  Norris 
and  Churton,  Doyly  and  Mant  were  names 
which  carried  weight,  and  the  Wordsworths 
added  dignity  to  the  school.  They  had  many 
of  the  thoughtful  and  efficient  clergy  on  their 
side,  and  the  benevolence  they  evoked  rivalled 
that  of  the  Evangelicals  of  Clapham.  It 
may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  these 
two  schools,  replying  to  the  Evangelical 
challenge,  made  the  Oxford  Movement  pos- 
sible. Education,  missions,  church  building 
were  in  full  swing  before  1833 ;  the  life 
was  there,  and  at  the  critical  moment  the 
Oxford  teachers  supplied  a  theory  which  gave 
an  explanation  for  it  and  added  a  further 
stimulus. 

Suspicious  of  both  these  schools,  confident 
o 


210    THE    CmmCH    OF    ENGLAND 

in  their  own  position,  marked,  says  an 
opponent,  by  "  spiritual  pride  and  exclusive- 
ness  and  obscurantist  proscription  of  scholar- 
ship," the  Evangelicals  stood  apart.  If  they 
attracted,  as  their  best  men,  such  as  Charles 
Simeon,  deservedly  did,  they  also  repelled. 
This  was  especially  the  case  at  Cambridge, 
where  the  scholars,  led  by  Herbert  Marsh, 
made  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
an  occasion  of  conflict.  That  society,  founded 
in  1804,  was  among  the  chief  evidences  of 
the  power  of  Evangelicalism.  It  proclaimed 
their  principle  that  not  membership  in  a 
communion  but  unity  in  doctrine  was  the 
important  matter.  The  symbol  of  this  unity 
was  the  Bible.  The  reformers  had  taken 
over  from  the  mediaeval  Church  without 
examination  its  beliefs  concerning  the  volume 
and  its  methods  of  exegesis.  The  only 
change  was  that  with  them  the  Bible  was  the 
sole  source  of  infallible  truth.  The  conse- 
quences were  not  altogether  good.  Biblio- 
latry  can  be  carried  to  excess,  and  Protestant 
use  of  allegorical  interpretation  was  often 
grotesque.  But  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the 
Bible,  without  note  or  comment,  was  profound. 
Benevolent  men  were  eager  to  supply  funds 
for  its  circulation,  convinced  that  it  would 
do  its  work  even  when  thrust  into  unwilling 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    211 

or  ignorant  hands.  They  were  the  more 
wilhng  because  co-operation  in  this  cause 
was  a  means  of  knitting  together  the  different 
communions  in  a  unity  which  transcended 
their  distinctions.  The  scholars,  on  the  other 
hand,  doubted  the  competence  of  the  multi- 
tude to  extract  truth  from  the  Bible  without 
assistance,  and  as  churchmen  they  deemed 
it  disloyal  to  withhold  the  Church's  guidance 
from  inquirers.  The  Bible,  they  argued, 
ought  not  to  be  circulated  by  churchmen 
without  the  Prayer  Book  as  its  companion, 
and  therefore  churchmen  ought  to  confine 
their  support  to  the  society  (the  S.P.C.K.) 
which  spread  both  together.  The  conflict 
was  fierce  about  1812  ;  it  is  needless  to  say 
that  neither  side  confessed   defeat. 

Nine  years  later  the  strife  of  Marsh  with 
Evangelicalism  was  renewed.  He  was  now 
Bishop  of  Peterborough,  and  used  his  position 
to  attempt  a  deadly  blow.  He  tried  to  cut 
off  the  supply  of  Evangelical  clergy  at  its 
source.  The  party  had  recognized  the  strength 
of  the  freehold  position,  and  many  of  its 
members  were  safely  ensconced  in  parishes, 
while  Simeon  was  using  his  own  wealth  and 
that  of  his  admirers  in  buying  up  advowsons 
that  his  followers  might  have  free  scope. 
They  were  invulnerable,  but  it  occurred  to 


212  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Marsh  that  if  he  refused  to  ordain  and  Hcense 
men  of  their  views,  they  would  have  neither 
successors  nor  assistants.  So  he  devised  a 
series  of  questions,  described  as  a  "  trap  to 
catch  Calvinists,"  which  the  EvangeHcals 
could  not  answer  to  his  satisfaction  without 
renouncing  their  principles  ;  for  they  were 
still  Calvinists  by  profession,  though  not  at 
heart  or  in  practice.  The  men  failed  to 
pass  his  scrutiny,  and  at  once  there  was  a 
storm  of  protest.  The  Bishop,  in  reply  to  a 
question  in  the  House  of  Lords,  asserted  that 
their  admission  would  have  been  "  a  species 
of  toleration  which  would  shortly  end  in  the 
destruction  of  the  Church."  His  act  was  a 
bold  one,  for  he  was  not  attacking  a  struggling 
cause,  but  a  powerful  body,  but  it  was  not 
the  less  ill-advised  and  futile.  For  he  was 
actually  imposing  a  new  and  unlawful  test, 
and  his  flank  was  at  once  turned.  Other 
bishops  gladly  received  the  candidates  he 
had  rejected ;  he  had  merely  caused  a 
temporary  inconvenience  and  did  not  venture 
to  repeat  the  experiment.  Its  significance 
lies  not  in  what  happened,  but  in  what  would 
have  happened,  had  not  the  beneficed  clergy 
had  a  freehold  position.  Bishop  Marsh  cher- 
ished no  prejudice  against  the  unbeneficed ; 
he  assailed  them  because  they  seemed  to  be 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    218 

within  his  reach.  The  freehold  had  protected 
the  EvangeHcals  till  so  strong  an  opinion, 
among  bishops  as  well  as  others,  had  grown 
up  in  their  favour  that  it  was  vain  to  attack 
them  even  in  their  weakest  quarter. 

While  churchmen  were  thus  at  variance 
among  themselves  a  storm  was  brewing 
against  them  from  without.  It  arose  from 
the  unwise  patronage  of  Lord  Liverpool's 
cabinet,  of  whom  several,  such  as  Vansittart, 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  were  earn- 
estly religious  men.  They  retained  all  the 
prejudice  against  change,  and  against  any 
forces  that  might  be  regarded  as  favourable 
to  change,  that  had  been  excited  by  the 
horrors  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  had 
failed  to  realize  that  the  nation's  will  was  set 
upon  reform.  They  regarded  the  Church 
as  a  bulwark  of  the  constitution,  and  granted 
out  of  a  heavily  burdened  revenue  sums  of 
£1,500,000  for  church  building.  The  need 
was  great,  and  the  public  augmentation  of 
this  fund  was  liberal,  and  perhaps,  had  it 
stood  alone,  the  favour  might  not  have  excited 
opposition.  But  it  was  reinforced  by 
measures  against  Dissent.  Restrictions  were 
put  upon  the  activity  of  preachers,  especially 
in  the  open  air,  and  they  were  made  to 
understand    that    the    advocacy    of    religion 


214  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

outside  the  national  Church  was  regarded 
with  suspicion.  Even  the  Methodists,  a  con- 
servative body  and  friendly  to  the  Church, 
were  thus  insulted,  and  it  was  inevitable 
that  their  resentment  should  extend  from 
a  misguided  political  party  to  the  Church 
on  whose  behalf  these  measures  were  taken  ; 
measures  which,  unhappily,  were  approved 
by  many  of  the  clergy. 

The  attack  was  formidable.  It  was  led 
by  the  Liberal  politicians,  with  most  of 
whom  magnanimity  took  the  place  of  a 
creed ;  their  religious  ideas  were  largely 
furnished  them  by  Unitarians,  who  had  an 
influence  much  greater  than  their  numbers 
warranted.  The  self-confident  and  youthful 
party  of  the  Utilitarians,  with  whom  their 
doctrine  was  an  actual  substitute  for  religion, 
was  on  the  same  side.  In  opposition  to  ihe 
promotion  of  religious  knowledge  they  pressed 
the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  ;  they  talked 
boldly  about  the  march  of  intellect,  and  strove 
to  advance  it  by  such  means  as  the  foundation 
of  mechanics'  institutes.  But  while  these 
were  the  leaders  the  strength  of  the  attack 
was  in  the  Dissenters,  scrupulously  orthodox 
and  evangelical,  who  were  incongruously 
yoked  with  them  in  opposition  to  the  Church. 
They  joined  in  it  because  the  Church  seemed 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    215 

to  be  one  of  the  allied  interests  which 
undoubtedly  oppressed  the  nation,  while 
those  interests  favoured  the  Church  as  an 
obstacle  to  innovation.  We  cannot  regret 
now  that  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  were 
abolished  in  1828.  They  had  been  annually 
suspended  for  a  century,  though  it  was  still 
common  enough  for  Nonconformists  to  receive 
communion  in  their  parish  church  in  order 
to  qualify  for  office.  There  was  no  need 
for  them  to  do  so  ;  it  was  a  mere  act  of 
traditional  kindliness.  But  the  repeal  was 
meant  to  be  a  blow  to  the  Church,  and  was 
taken  by  too  many  churchmen  as  such. 
The  same  was  the  case  with  the  removal  of 
the  disqualification  of  Roman  Catholics  in 
1829.  The  Tories,  and  most  churchmen, 
were  still  inspired  with  an  unreasoning  dread 
of  change,  and  for  a  whole  generation  the 
pulpit  had  been  used  to  inculcate  the  badness 
of  the  Roman  creed  and  the  danger  of  granting 
political  equality  to  its  adherents.  By  a 
strange  sequence  of  events  the  Oxford  Move- 
ment was  soon  to  present  Roman  Christianity 
in  a  new  light  to  a  people  inflamed  with 
prejudice  and  primed  with  argument  against 
that  Church. 

But  in  the  sweeping  movement  of  change 
when  Parliament  and  municipal  corporations 


216  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

were  reformed,  the  Church  itself  was  taken 
in  hand.  What  was  done  was  in  the  main 
beneficial ;  but  it  was  regarded  as  a  succession 
of  outrages  by  the  majority  of  the  clergy, 
and  those  who  carried  the  changes  out  were 
openly  pleased  that  while  they  reformed 
abuses  they  wounded  feelings.  Between  1832 
and  1840  what  was  practically  a  revolution 
was  carried  out.  Supreme  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  has  been  vested  since  1832  in 
the  Privy  Council  (since  1833  in  its  Judicial 
Committee)  instead  of  in  a  spiritual  court ; 
in  1833  a  number  of  superfluous  Irish  sees 
were  combined  with  others,  and  at  this  point 
Keble  made  the  famous  protest  which  started 
the  Oxford  Movement.  In  1834  began  the 
agitations  against  church  rates  and  University 
tests,  which  were  to  be  finally  successful 
in  1868  and  1871  respectively.  In  1835 
a  Commission  on  ecclesiastical  revenues, 
appointed  in  1832,  issued  its  report.  This 
was  followed  by  the  Act  of  1836,  which  created 
a  permanent  Commission  with  power  (subject 
to  life  interests)  of  reducing  or  raising  bishops' 
incomes  and  of  abolishing  a  multitude  of 
prebends  and  other  cathedral  and  collegiate 
offices.  To  most  of  these  no  duties  were 
attached  and  the  aggregate  revenues  were 
considerable.     The   chief   sources   of   income 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    217 

put  at  the  disposal  of  the  Commission  were 
the  cathedrals  of  Durham  and  St.  Paul's, 
where  coal  in  the  former  and  the  spread 
of  London  in  the  latter  case  had  made  what 
had  once  been  modest  endowments  extremely 
valuable.  The  revenues  sequestrated  were 
ordered  to  be  employed  in  augmenting  poor 
livings  or  founding  new  ones,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  church  work  in  the  poor  quarters  of 
the  towns  has  been  made  possible  solely  by 
this  means.  At  the  same  time  the  dioceses 
were  made  more  equal  in  extent  and  popula- 
tion and  the  first  measures  were  taken 
towards  increasing  their  number,  while  power 
was  subsequently  given  to  the  Commission 
to  create  new  parishes  by  the  cheap  and  easy 
process  of  an  Order  in  Council  instead  of  the 
old  cumbrous  method.  In  1836  also  another 
benefit  was  conferred  upon  the  clergy  by  the 
abolition  of  the  awkward  and  irritating 
system  of  collecting  tithe  in  kind,  and  the 
substitution  for  it  of  a  rent  charge  payable 
in  money  and  fluctuating  with  the  price  of 
corn.  The  redistribution  of  revenues  and  the 
relief  in  regard  to  tithe,  though  disliked  at 
the  time  as  an  interference,  have  produced 
none  but  good  results,  as  has  also  the  sup- 
pression of  the  immemorial  abuse  of  pluralities 
and  the  enforcement  of  residence  upon  the 


218  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

parish  clergy.  Even  more  resented  was  the 
estabhshment  of  civil  marriage,  as  an  alterna- 
tive to  marriage  in  church,  in  1836,  and  the 
grant  of  a  charter  to  London  University  in 
the  same  year,  which  provided  the  old 
Universities  with  a  rival  where  tests  were 
unknown. 

These  changes  had  not  proceeded  far  when 
the  wrath  of  churchmen  found  expression. 
The  attack  was  from  the  Liberals ;  the 
defence  was  undertaken  by  the  most  conserva- 
tive element  in  the  Church.  A  moment  had 
come  when  the  High  Churchmen,  with  their 
veneration  for  the  past,  were  the  natural 
spokesmen.  Great  addresses  from  the  clergy 
and  the  laity  were  presented  in  1834  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  protesting  attach- 
ment to  the  Church  and  determination  to 
maintain  its  right.  The  feeling  of  loyalty 
was  awakened.  But  a  definite  direction  was 
to  be  given  to  thought  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Oxford  Movement,  who  were  the  better  able 
to  give  it  that,  with  the  exception  of  Newman, 
the  must  illustrious,  they  had  been  trained 
in  the  old  High  Church  school.  Keble 
especially  represented  that  tradition,  and 
had  in  him  a  strain  even  of  the  Non- juror. 
He  reverenced  King  Charles  as  a  martyr, 
and  accepted  without  reserve  the  Caroline 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    219 

ideals  in  doctrine  and  life.  He  brought  to 
the  movement  principles  long  formed,  already 
expounded  with  great  effect  in  1827  in  his 
"  Christian  Year,"  and  never  to  be  modified 
during  his  life.  But  his  opportunity  came 
in  1833,  when  he  raised  his  voice  against  the 
inroads  of  Liberalism  in  his  famous  sermon 
on  "  National  Apostasy."  Since  1832  Mem- 
bers of  Parliament  need  not  be  churchmen, 
yet  Parliament  was  laying  hands  on  the 
Church,  and  in  particular  was  interfering 
with  the  Irish  bishoprics.  This,  to  his  mind, 
was  typical  of  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  his 
protest,  according  to  Newman,  was  the 
beginning  of  the  movement.  The  training 
and  thought  of  Dr.  Pusey  were  similar 
to  those  of  Keble,  and  though  he  was  more 
susceptible  of  alien  influences,  for  him,  too, 
departure  from  his  Church  was  impossible. 
Newman's  history  was  different.  He  had 
brought  himself,  by  thought  and  study,  to 
the  point  of  view  of  his  colleagues,  but  he 
had  joined  the  cause,  and  on  further  con- 
sideration could  forsake  it.  His  affections 
were  not  rooted  as  were  theirs. 

Their  attack  was  aimed  not  merely  against 
measures  but  against  a  mode  of  thought 
which  might  be  found  within  the  Church 
as  well  as  outside.      The   Liberalism    of  the 


220  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

day  had  its  mild  ecclesiastical  counterpart. 
There  were  eminent  men,  especially  at 
Oxford,  who  preferred  reason  to  authority, 
held  that  many  questions  were  open,  and 
taught  that  we  need  only  honour  with 
a  conditional  acceptance  views  which  in 
former  generations  had  passed  for  absolute 
truth.  Such  was  Dr.  Hampden,  the  suc- 
cessive stages  of  whose  career  were  occasions 
of  strife.  But  the  movement  was  positive 
also.  It  aimed  at  making  religious  life 
more  real.  Its  authors  were  stern  with 
themselves,  strict  in  self-discipline,  resolute 
to  force  themselves  into  the  mould  of  the 
most  perfect  past  that  they  could  conceive. 
Thus  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  Evan- 
gelicalism of  the  day,  whose  first  enthusiasm 
had  cooled  and  which  had  come  to  be,  as 
Dean  Church  says,  on  very  easy  terms  with 
the  world.  The  new  ideal  of  precise  belief 
and  scrupulous  obedience  conflicted  with 
the  earlier  ideal  of  awakened  feeling. 

In  spite  of  this  sharp  divergence  there  were 
common  principles  ;  each  appealed  to  the 
Bible  and  to  its  own  tradition.  For  both 
schools  the  Bible  was  infallible,  though  for 
the  newer  it  had  to  be  interpreted  by  anti- 
quity. Among  Evangelicals  there  was  a 
wonderful  knowledge  of  the  letter  of  Scripture, 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    221 

which  they  studied  as  the  sole  and  sufficient 
authority.  But  their  reverence  could  not 
exceed  that  of  such  a  man  as  Pusey,  whose 
commentary  on  Daniel  accepted  without 
demur  the  traditional  estimate  of  the  book, 
and  might  have  been  written  (apart  from 
advance  in  knowledge)  in  any  generation 
since  Scripture  began  to  be  annotated. 
Neither  side  dreamed  that  within  a  few  years 
the  Bible  would  be  seen  in  a  new  and  different 
light.  But  each  party  appealed  also  to  a 
tradition  of  its  own.  Whole  libraries  were 
hurried  through  the  press  to  prove  that  the 
school  which  produced  them  was  true  to  the 
past,  and  that  its  opponents  were  defying 
the  best  teaching  of  the  Church.  On  the 
one  side  the  patristic  literature  was  labori- 
ously translated  ;  on  the  other  the  writings 
of  the  English  reformers  were  collected. 
The  men  of  the  movement  reprinted  many 
of  the  Caroline  divines  to  show  what  was 
the  genuine  Anglican  doctrine,  and  when 
they  diverged  towards  Rome  the  series  was 
completed  by  the  "  High  and  Dry,"  to 
show  the  obliquity  of  the  very  men  who 
had  revived  the  study  of  standard  English 
theology.  Every  one  took  for  granted 
that  there  was  an  authority  in  the  past 
that  must  be   followed,  and  was   willing  to 


222  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

be  judged  by  his  conformity  to  the  pattern 
of  his  choice. 

But  it  was  the  party  of  the  movement  that 
needed  to  justify  itself,  for  it  was  advocating 
what  seemed  a  new  departure.  In  the  series 
of  "  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  which  ran  from 
1833  to  1841,  and  were  Newman's  own  plan 
for  the  restoration  of  the  Church,  the  appeal 
to  the  clergy  w^as  that  they  should  rest  their 
claim  upon  their  commission  derived  through 
the  bishops  from  the  Apostles,  and  that 
they  should  take  seriously  the  authority  of 
the  bishops  over  them.  There  v/as,  indeed, 
great  need  for  a  recognized  principle  of 
association.  Not  only  was  there  the  combined 
attack  of  the  Liberal  forces  from  without ; 
there  was  much  unsettlement  within.  It 
was  a  frequent  thing  for  earnest  Evangelical 
clergymen  to  secede  to  one  or  other  form 
of  Dissent,  and  at  the  very  time  when  the 
Tracts  were  being  published  the  Plymouth 
Brethren  and  the  Irvingites  were  drawing 
many  recruits  from  the  English  Church. 
The  principle  of  the  Tracts  was  an  effective 
barrier  against  such  movements.  But  this 
stress  on  the  historical  ministry  necessarily 
led  to  a  respectful  attitude  towards  Rome, 
through  which  that  ministry  had  reached 
England.     As    we    have    seen,    controversy 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    228 

against  Rome,  waged  in  a  political  interest, 
had  been  one  of  the  chief  topics  of  the  pulpit 
for  the  last  generation.  The  passion  thus 
engendered,  and  with  it  the  belief  (by  no 
means  confined  to  Evangelicals)  that  the 
Pope  is  the  Anti-Christ  of  the  Apocalypse, 
were  to  create  much  prejudice  against  the 
Oxford  Movement.  On  the  other  hand. 
Evangelical  Dissent  was  now  enlisted  in  the 
motley  host  which  opposed  the  Church,  and 
so  the  tract-writers  might  hope  for  acqui- 
escence in  a  teaching  which  emphasized  the 
difference    between    Dissent    and    Church. 

The  Tracts  were  vigorously  written  and 
buttressed  with  ample  learning ;  it  was 
impossible  to  ignore  them.  Consciences  were 
awakened,  and  men  looked  to  the  past  for 
patterns  to  copy.  Some  stopped  short  at 
the  Caroline  divines,  and  earnest  clergy 
were  to  be  seen  walking  abroad,  as  though 
they  lived  under  Anne,  in  the  canonical 
attire  of  cassock  and  shovel  hat.  Others 
made  the  Greek  Fathers  their  model  in 
thought,  and  trained  themselves  and  their 
congregations  in  a  rigorous  and  logical  ortho- 
doxy. Others,  like  Hurrell  Froude,  followed 
the  very  path  of  the  Romantic  movement 
as  eclectic  imitators  of  the  more  attractive 
features  in  the  life  of  the  mediaeval  Church. 


224  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

They  practised  its  austerities,  believed  its 
miracles — in  the  first  stage  of  the  Oxford 
Movement  an  Anglo-Catholic  was  apt  to  be 
more  credulous  than  a  Roman  Catholic  of 
equal  education — strove  to  revive  its  observ- 
ances and  its  architecture.  They  have  a 
sad  memorial  in  recklessly  restored  churches 
and  grotesque  stained  glass  windows.  But 
Rome  still  in  many  ways  was  mediaeval, 
and  the  old  system  might  there  be  watched 
at  work.  It  was  inevitable  that  these  zealous 
students  of  the  past,  animated  with  the 
practical  wish  of  perfecting  their  religious 
life  and  work,  should  turn  thither  for  examples. 
It  was  inevitable  also  that  this  should  awaken 
resentment  and  suspicion. 

But  for  a  while  the  swing  of  the  movement 
carried  all  before  it.  What  seemed  eccen- 
tricities were  pardoned  in  men  who  were 
evidently  breathing  new  life  and  strength 
into  the  Church.  Yet  by  1838  there  was 
a  deep  cleavage,  and  the  Evangelicals  char- 
acteristically devised  a  subscription  for  a 
Martyrs'  Memorial  at  Oxford  as  a  test.  The 
men  of  the  movement  refused  to  subscribe  ; 
and  from  that  time  we  find  an  alliance  between 
the  Evangelicals,  the  conservatives,  or  "  High 
and  Dry  "  school,  and  what  soon  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Broad  Church  Party  against 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    225 

the  common  enemy.  Unfortunately  for  itself, 
the  army  against  which  they  united  was 
itself  becoming  divided.  There  was  the 
majority,  led  by  Pusey  and  Keble,  who  did 
not  regard  the  Church  as  compromised  by 
what  they  deemed  the  errors  of  its  leaders. 
Yet  these  errors  in  its  eyes  were  grave,  and 
especially  a  plan,  entered  upon  in  1841, 
for  beginning  an  amalgamation  between  the 
English  Church  and  the  State  Church  of 
Prussia.  The  two  were  to  have  a  common 
interest  in  an  English  bishop  in  Jerusalem, 
who  was  to  ordain  and  rule  the  clergy  of 
both  who  were  working  in  Palestine,  and 
was  to  extend  his  sympathy  to  various  small 
and  ancient  Churches  of  Syria,  which  repre- 
sented teachings  condemned  by  the  great 
councils  of  the  fifth  centuiy.  To  the  men 
of  the  Oxford  Movement  all  this  was  utterly 
repugnant.  The  validity  of  their  position 
depended  in  their  o^vn  eyes  upon  the  ortho- 
doxy of  their  Church,  and  many  of  them  had 
carried  their  mediaeval  enthusiasm  so  far 
as  to  feel  a  quite  Roman  dislike  for  the 
Reformation.  But  the  Evangelical  Church 
of  Prussia  was  a  combination  in  one  body 
of  the  tv/o  Churches  which  had  sprung  from 
the  Reformation.  It  represented  the  errors 
both  of  Luther  and  Calvin  ;  and  now,  in  union 


226  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

with  it,  the  EngHsh  Church  was  to  compromise 
its  principles  by  friendship  with  Nestorians 
and  Monophysites.  In  Newman's  eyes  this 
meant  that  the  Church  could  not  be  trusted  ; 
Pusey  was  content  to  think  that  though 
its  chiefs  were  taking  a  wrong  course,  the 
Church's  character  was  unaffected  by  their 
policy. 

While  Newman  was  thus  being  shaken 
in  his  confidence,  he  was  being  led  (in  great 
measure  by  headstrong  followers)  towards 
Rome.  The  first  step  was  that  taken  in  the 
famous  Tract  Ninety.  In  it  he  argued  that 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  strictly  construed, 
did  not  contradict  the  official  teaching  of 
the  Roman  Church  as  formulated  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  therefore  were  not  a 
barrier  against  union,  which  he  desired.  His 
argument,  as  we  now  see,  was  valid.  The 
Articles  were  carefully  drawn  so  as  not  to 
exclude  the  moderate  majority  of  their 
period ;  those  whom  they  alienated  were 
the  zealots  of  the  Roman  and  Puritan  ex- 
tremes. But  they  had  come  in  popular 
esteem  to  be  regarded  as  a  proclamation  of 
principles  hostile  to  Rome.  Men  were  preju- 
diced, and  had  not  the  knowledge  of  history 
needed  to  counteract  the  prejudice.  After 
the  publication  of  the  Tract,  early  in  1841, 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    227 

there  was  an  outburst  of  execration,  led 
by  most  of  the  bishops,  whose  charges  were, 
for  once,  important  as  guides  to  opinion. 
And  incidentally  the  prominence  of  such  a 
school  as  Newman's  wdthin  the  Church 
gave  a  fresh  stimulus  to  Dissenting  opposition. 
A  definite  doctrinal  issue  was  raised,  and  it 
became  clear  that  there  could  be  no  more 
such  co-operation,  and  such  indifference  to 
questions  of  the  Church's  structure,  as  had 
prevailed  .  on  both  sides  in  the  latter  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Enmity  was 
excited  by  the  emphasis  laid  upon  bishops 
as  necessary  to  the  validity  of  a  Church. 
But  the  bishops  were  as  loud  as  the  Dissenters 
in  their  reprobation,  and  in  the  bishops 
Newman  had  put  his  trust.  His  reasoning 
was  made  to  seem  absurd  by  their  repudia- 
tion ;  and  meanwhile  he  was  coming  to  feel, 
no  longer  that  the  English  and  Roman 
Churches,  essentially  one,  should  amalgamate 
as  equals,  but  that  the  latter,  being  the  truer 
to  the  past,  was  the  better  of  the  two.  The 
English  was  loudly  repudiating  his  inter- 
pretation of  its  position,  and  Newman  had 
not  the  patience,  nor  the  indifference  to  logic, 
which  enabled  Pusey  and  Keble  to  wait  and 
in  effect  to  win.  He  took  his  own  Church 
at  what  seemed  to  be  its  word ;    and  he  was 


228  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

so  impressed  with  the  duty  of  belonging 
to  a  Church  consistent  and  positive  in  the 
statement  of  its  nature  and  claims  that  he 
took  Rome  at  its  own  estimate.  There  must, 
he  thought,  be  a  Church  such  as  he  desired. 
Rome  claimed  to  be  that  Church,  and  no  other 
made  the  same  exclusive  claim.  Therefore,  to 
the  loss  of  all  old  associations  and  friendships, 
he  made  his  sacrifice  and  became  a  Roman 
Catholic  in  1845.     He  had  many  followers. 

But  in  working  his  way  to  his  new  position 
he  had  made  a  momentous  discovery.  He 
had  started  as  a  convinced  conservative. 
Truth  was  to  be  tested  by  the  past.  The 
ancient  Councils  were  no  more  to  be  criticized 
than  the  infallible  Bible,  and  the  Fathers 
were  to  be  treated  with  profound  respect. 
Yet  obviously  the  modem  Church  of  Rome  had 
departed  widely  from  that  standard.  It  was 
a  chief  delight  of  x\nglican  controversialists 
to  taunt  Rome  with  these  discrepancies, 
and  Newman  had  been  active  in  the  task. 
He  had  now  to  find  a  reason  to  justify  him 
for  recanting,  and  he  found  it  in  development. 
Doctrinal  truth,  he  now  argued,  is  not  un- 
changeable. New  light  is  thrown  upon  it, 
and  additions  are  made  to  it  with  the  progress 
of  time  ;  the  test  of  them  is  their  consistency 
(not  their  identity)  with  a  former  revelation. 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    229 

Newman  did  not  frame  the  theory  as  a 
dispassionate  inquirer  ;  his  sympathies  had 
outrun  his  logical  position  and  forced  him 
to  shape  this  novel  hypothesis.  Nevertheless, 
he  has  his  place  among  those  who  have 
introduced  into  modern  thought  its  charac- 
teristic idea  of  evolution  and  its  interest 
in  tracing  the  path  by  w^hich  things  have  come 
to  be  as  they  are.  If  the  dominant  impulse 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  emotional, 
that  of  the  nineteenth  was  scientific.  Differ- 
ent though  their  thoughts  were,  as  Rousseau 
and  Wesley  were  typical  of  the  one,  so 
Darwin  and  Newman  were  of  the  other. 

The  general  condemnation  of  Tract  Ninety 
and  the  subsequent  secessions  made  the 
Evangelicals  dominant  in  the  Church  for  a 
generation.  But  the  Evangelicalism  was  often 
allied  with  and  coloured  by  a  broader  mode 
of  thought  than  the  earlier  Evangelicals  would 
have  approved.  Dread  of  the  "  sacerdotal- 
ism "  of  the  Oxford  school  drew  the  party 
towards  all  who  shared  this  repugnance. 
We  may  take  as  a  symptom  the  case  of  Dr. 
Hampden.  In  1847  the  protest  against  his 
elevation  to  a  bishopric  was  made  only  by  the 
Oxford  men  and  other  High  Churchmen. 
In  1836  the  Evangelicals  had  been  among  the 
loudest   in   denouncing   his   appointment   to 


230  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

an  Oxford  Professorship  of  Divinity.  The 
change  was  due  to  no  alteration  in  Hampden's 
teaching,  which  had  always  kept  well  within 
the  lines  of  the  Church  :  it  was  due  to  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  he  was  an  opponent 
of  the  Oxford  school.  For  the  most  part  the 
Evangelical  bishops  were  sensible  as  well 
as  devout,  and  left  agitation  to  the  rank  and 
file  of  their  party.  But  there  were  exceptions, 
and  sometimes  even  the  wiser  erred,  as  did 
Sumner  of  Winchester  when  he  repeated  the 
mistake  of  Marsh  of  Peterborough.  Keble 
was  beneficed  at  Hursley  in  the  Winchester 
diocese,  impregnable  in  his  freehold.  Bishop 
Sumner  refused  year  after  year  to  ordain  his 
curate,  an  excellent  man  named  Young, 
to  the  priesthood.  This  time  the  error 
alleged  was  not  Calvinism,  but  a  doctrine  of 
the  Eucharist  which  now  (so  rapidly  do 
standards  shift)  is  a  commonplace  of  the 
theological  colleges.  Like  other  schools  before 
it,  that  of  Oxford  was  saved  from  suppression 
by  the  security  of  the  benefice.  Bishops, 
representing  the  best  wisdom  of  the  generation 
that  was  passing  away,  though  hostile  were 
harmless,  and  the  advocates  of  the  new  idea, 
when  they  entered  upon  independent  parish 
work,  could  persist  in  recommending  it 
to    their    parishioners    till    it    became    first 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    281 

tolerable  and  finally  welcome.  We  may  be 
sure  that  whatev^er  schools  of  thought  may 
hereafter  prevail  in  the  English  Church, 
they  will  need  the  same  protection  of  an 
assured  tenure  against  the  same  prejudice 
of  older  men  in  authority. 

The  less  official  members  of  the  Evangelical 
party  did  little  for  the  advancement  of 
thought  or  knowledge.  Little  indeed  could 
be  expected  from  a  body  which  was  swept  off 
its  feet  into  frantic  terror  at  Bishop  Blom- 
field's  attempt  of  1812  to  secure  a  minimum 
of  uniformity  by  requiring  the  use  of  the 
surplice  in  the  pulpit,  and  ordering  some  few 
other  changes  in  the  conduct  of  worship. 
It  is  probable  that  if  regularity  had  been 
at  that  time  attained  on  the  Evangelical 
side  the  opposite  party  would  have  submitted 
in  their  turn  to  a  fixed  standard  of  observance. 
But  in  1846  Blomfield  was  compelled  by  wide- 
spread and  sometimes  scandalous  resistance 
to  withdraw  his  directions,  and  an  example 
of  successful  insubordination  had  been  set 
upon  which  the  "  Ritualists  "  were  soon  to 
improve.  After  this  episode  the  Evangelicals, 
apart  from  their  steady  work  which  does  not 
lend  itself  to  narration,  from  their  philan- 
thropy, in  which  Lord  Shaftesbury  was 
conspicuous,  and  from  their  expanding  mis- 


232  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

sionary  efforts,  which  lie  beyond  our  sphere, 
found  their  chief  scope  in  resisting  what 
seemed  to  them  a  Romeward  movement. 
From  1855  onwards  great  sums  were  wasted 
over  many  lawsuits,  which  culminated  in  an 
attack  on  Bishop  King,  of  Lincoln.  That 
case,  concluded  in  1892,  was  practically  the 
end  of  a  series  in  which  the  party  gained 
many  more  verdicts  than  they  lost,  once 
succeeded  in  changing  the  law  in  their  favour, 
and  more  than  once  in  putting  contumacious 
opponents  into  prison.  But  they  utterly 
failed  to  fix  a  maximum  of  ritual.  By  steady 
persistence  the  other  side  have  now  so  ac- 
climatized a  multitude  of  observances  against 
which  the  courts  declared,  that  they  have 
lost  all  doctrinal  significance  and  are  tolerated 
or  even  practised  by  good  Evangelicals. 
And  as  to  the  points  which  still  mark  diverg- 
ence, all  serious  men  recognize  the  folly  of 
penal  measures,  except  in  rare  cases  of 
petulant  disloyalty.  If  the  policy  of  litigation 
has  been  a  failure  in  this  respect,  it  was 
equally  futile  in  the  few  cases  where  doctrinal 
issues  were  raised.  Happily,  neither  side 
has  been  able  to  narrow  the  breadth  of 
doctrine  which  since  the  Reformation  has 
been  the  glory  of  the  English  Church. 
On  the  Oxford  Movement  the  effect  of  the 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    233 

secessions  of  1845  was  to  distribute  its  activity 
over  England  at  large.  In  Oxford  its  oppon- 
ents were  triumphant ;  in  the  parishes  which 
its  supporters  held  they  could  show  in  practice 
the  strength  of  their  system.  Pusey  remained 
in  Oxford,  the  counsellor  of  the  party,  and 
was  unwearied  in  argument  and  device.  His 
chief  strength  must  have  been  in  the  impres- 
siveness  of  his  character.  Though  he  cared 
little  for  his  own  sake  about  externals  and 
did  his  best,  with  small  success,  to  restrain 
his  followers  from  alienating  congregations 
by  novelties  in  worship,  he  was  convinced 
that  the  mediaeval  system  of  religious  observ- 
ance was  the  machinery  requisite  to  maintain 
the  temper  into  which  he  desired  to  train  his 
disciples.  He  was  strict  to  austerity,  he 
inculcated  habitual  confession  and  exercised 
spiritual  direction,  he  encouraged  vows  and 
was  the  first  promoter  of  sisterhoods  in  the 
English  Church.  He  was  treading  on  new 
ground,  and  in  his  desire  for  the  benefit  of 
experience  he  made  eager  enquiries  in  Roman 
quarters,  which  were  not  always  dignified 
and  which  naturally  awakened  unfounded 
hopes.  Still  less  wise  was  the  adaptation, 
in  which  he  persisted  in  spite  of  warning  and 
protest,  of  French  books  of  devotion  for 
English  use.     Those  books  certainly  promoted 


234  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  very  result  against  which  they  were  a 
precaution.  Yet  essentially  he  based  himself 
on  the  orthodoxy  of  St.  Cyril  and  the  tradi- 
tional estimate  of  the  Bible.  He  had  no 
views  about  development,  and  was  ever 
vigilant  in  protest  against  successive  inroads 
upon  the  immemorial  theology  which  he  and 
his  friends  combined  with  so  many  innova- 
tions,  or  revivals,   in  religious  practice. 

Widely  though  Pusey's  influence  was  felt 
through  recourse  to  him  at  Oxford,  through 
his  laborious  correspondence  and  unflagging 
industry  in  ponderous  authorship,  it  was 
through  the  interpretation  of  his  followers 
that  he  was  best  known  to  the  world.  Wisely 
or  unwisely,  they  advertised  their  departure 
from  the  common  teaching  by  changes 
in  the  conduct  of  Divine  worship.  Ignoring 
their  ancestry  of  ten  generations,  save  for 
some  recognition  of  the  service  rendered 
by  those  who  broke  from  Rome,  they  put 
themselves  back  into  the  "  Catholic  "  position 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Antiquarian  discussions 
as  to  the  relative  merit  of  "  Roman  use  " 
or  "  Sarum  use,"  were  among  their  most 
congenial  employments,  and  their  views  were 
variously  exemplified  in  the  ornaments  of 
churches  and  ministers.  It  was  natural  that 
this    side    of   their   interests    should    attract 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    285 

attention,  and  that  it  should  be  seized  upon 
by  opponents  for  attack,  though  every  one 
recognized  that  the  real  cause  of  dispute  lay 
in  the  ideal  of  Christian  life  that  was  finding 
its  expression  in  novel  ritual.  But  this 
emphasis  on  externals  gave  to  the  second 
phase  of  the  Oxford  Movement  the  unfortunate 
peculiarity  that,  of  all  religious  efforts,  it 
made  the  smallest  intellectual  demand  upon 
its  promoters.  Experiments  in  ritual  were 
easily  made,  and  the  attention  they  arrested 
was  gratifying.  Sometimes,  as  was  inevi- 
table when  so  many  were  attempted,  they 
were  absurd,  and  even  though  they  were 
quickly  abandoned  increased  the  public  irrita- 
tion. But  this  general  feeling  only  stimulated 
the  innovators.  In  spite  of  the  grave  reproofs 
of  their  leaders  they  preferred  to  empty  their 
churches  rather  than  deny  themselves  the 
symbolism  that  they  loved  ;  but  they  did 
not  fail  to  fill  them  again  with  converts 
to  their  own  methods.  There  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  the  aggregate  number  of  serious 
worshippers  has  diminished  through  the 
changes  ;  it  has  tended  to  increase,  in  spite 
of  irreparable  mischief  in  some  places  and 
many  wounds  wantonly  inflicted  on  devout 
feelings.  For  a  certain  hardness  of  tone 
has  been  the  character  of  the  school.     They 


236  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

were  harshly  treated,  and  they  have  retaUated. 
The  worst  customs  of  ecclesiastical  journalism 
and  pamphleteering  have  been  continued 
by  a  party  which  started  with  the  singular 
advantage  of  being  free  from  an  evil  tradition 
in  this  respect.  Not  that  they  were  worse 
than  their  rivals  in  this  matter,  but  that 
those  rivals  had  the  excuse  that  with  them 
scurrility  was  hereditary.  The  new  party 
has  also  shown  itself  peculiarly  gregarious. 
From  1848  onward  its  members  have  grouped 
themselves  into  combinations  for  mutual 
support,  which  has  often  turned  out  to  be  a 
mutual  encouragement  against  the  desires 
of  authority.  They  would  deny  that  they 
supported  each  other  against  the  law ;  but 
they  failed  to  discover  that  secular  courts 
did  not  bind  them  until  they  had  exhaustively 
proved  that  from  those  courts  they  could 
expect  no  countenance.  On  the  side  of 
doctrine  they  have  consistently  asserted, 
not  that  their  teaching  is  one  that  may  be 
lawfully  held  in  the  English  Church,  but  that 
it  has  exclusive  claims  to  acceptance,  and 
therefore  they  have  approved  the  attempts 
that  have  been  made  to  narrow  the  terms  of 
communion.  They  were  not  guilty  of  the 
effort  to  exclude  Mr.  Gorham  from  a  benefice, 
to   which   he   had   been   presented,    for   the 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    237 

offence  of  holding  a  doctrine  of  Baptism 
that  had  been  current,  and  even  prevalent, 
since  the  Reformation.  But  when  that  weary 
case  ended  in  1850  in  the  conclusion  that  the 
doctrine  in  debate  was  tenable,  the  second 
great  secession  took  place.  Archdeacon  Man- 
ning, the  future  Cardinal,  and  his  friends, 
findmg  that  the  Church  was  more  compre- 
hensive than  they  had  thought,  became 
Roman  Catholics.  After  this  the  party, 
though  there  have  been  small  departures 
at  frequent  intervals,  has  dwelt  with  increasing 
comfort  in  its  native  communion.  It  has 
attained  to  an  increasing  uniformity  of 
practice  and  to  a  widespread  influence. 
But,  during  the  height  of  the  conflict  which 
was  popularly  knoAvn  as  one  between  religion 
and  science,  its  leaders  became  strangely 
despondent.  Intellectually  it  was  for  them 
a  sterile  period.  Their  conservative  position 
had  been  stated  in  every  possible  way,  and 
all  the  resources  of  erudition  had  been 
exploited  in  its  defence.  Their  topics  were 
exhausted  and  the  force  of  their  appeal  was 
becoming  spent.  Then,  especially  through 
the  teaching  of  T.  H.  Green  at  Oxford,  a  new 
idealism  gained  vogue,  and  by  1880  the 
movement  took  on  a  new  phase.  It  became 
hopeful,    open   to   new  ideas,   more  broadly 


238  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

philanthropic,  sympathetic  to  Liberal  policies, 
and  mildly  rationalistic,  at  least  in  the  eyes 
of  Liddon  and  his  friends.  For  the  new 
light  upon  Scripture  had  begun  to  tinge 
its  thought,  and  criticism  was  beginning  to 
touch  the  immemorial  assumption  on  which 
its  exegesis  was  based. 

That  new  light  came  to  be  spread  through 
the  efforts  of  the  third  school  of  thought, 
that  which  about  1850  received  the  name  of 
the  Broad  Church  party.  As  the  affinities 
of  the  old  "  High  and  Dry  "  school,  and 
afterwards  those  of  Pusey  and  Newman, 
were  with  the  opponents  of  reform  in  the 
State,  so  those  of  this  party  were  with  the 
reformers,  and  in  both  cases  religious  and 
political  predispositions  coloured  each  other. 
Arnold  of  Rugby,  for  instance,  had  a  passion 
for  social  improvement  and  a  strong  belief 
in  a  Divine  purpose  that  the  nation,  as  an 
engine  for  the  elevation  of  its  members,  should 
consciously  be  one.  But  this  unity  was 
broken  by  religious  divisions.  The  Oxford 
Movement  devoted  itself  to  emphasizing 
differences  and  deepening  them,  and  therefore 
he  detested  it.  For  he  wished  to  see  a 
national  Church,  including  all  Christians  save 
Romanists  and  Unitarians,  whose  scruples 
would  be  invincible,  and  therefore  he  made 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    239 

it  his  business  to  demolish  those  principles, 
claiming  to  be  Catholic,  by  which  his  oppon- 
ents justified  their  exclusiveness.  His  friends 
of  the  older  Oriel  or  "  Noetic  "  school,  cool 
and  critical  men  for  whom  religion  was  above 
all  things  rational,  resented  a  scheme  of 
thought  which  rested  on  tradition  and  went 
on  to  commend  its  case  by  presenting  it  in 
picturesque  and  imaginative  colours.  Soon 
the  Oxford  Movement  itself  furnished  recruits. 
Able  men  such  as  J.  A.  Froude,  Francis 
Newman,  the  Cardinal's  brother,  and  Mark 
Pattison,  revolted  with  bitterness  ;  and  others 
who  had  been  attracted  though  they  had 
not  become  adherents,  such  as  Stanley  and 
Jowett,  came  to  share  the  same  feeling  of 
repugnance  against  this  dogmatic  and  authori- 
tative presentation  of  the  claims  of  the 
Church.  The  recoil  was  proportional  to  the 
original  stress,  and  exaggeration  was  often 
met  in  the  ensuing  controversies  by  equal 
exaggeration. 

But  there  was  a  real  advance  in  knowledge. 
Jowett  and  Stanley,  in  1855,  published 
commentaries  on  the  Pauline  epistles,  exam- 
ined from  what  was,  for  England,  a  new  point 
of  view.  The  consequence  at  Oxford  was 
an  unworthy  persecution  of  the  former, 
with  a  denial  of  the  income  he  deserved  as 


240  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Professor  of  Greek.  This  was  honourably 
ended,  as  Pusey  would  have  ended  it  sooner 
had  his  followers  allowed  him,  but  not  till 
1865.  In  1860  a  storm  was  raised  by  the 
publication  of  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  a 
volume  of  papers  unequal  in  merit,  but 
which  was  justly  regarded  as  claiming  a 
liberty  at  least  as  wide  as  had  been  enjoyed 
by  the  extremer  Latitudinarians  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  But  it  claimed  this 
liberty  on  a  new  ground,  as  justified  by 
additions  to  knowledge  and  advances  in 
thought  which  had  antiquated  many  accepted 
definitions  and  shaken  the  authority  of  many 
more.  The  meaning  of  this  manifesto  was 
quickly  exemplified.  Bishop  Colenso  of  Natal 
published  in  1861  a  commentary  on  St.  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  which  rejected  the 
current  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  that 
epistle.  It  was  not  a  serious  contribution 
to  knowledge,  and  has  had  no  permanent 
influence.  His  other  work,  an  elaborate 
examination  of  the  Pentateuch,  published 
in  many  parts  from  1862  to  1879,  was  a 
landmark  in  English  theology.  In  it  he 
adopted,  and  developed  with  ability,  though 
often  recklessly  and  in  an  aggressive  temper, 
that  account  of  the  Pentateuch  which  was 
already,  in  1862,  widely  accepted  in  Germany 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    241 

and  is  now  generally  received.  The  Mosaic 
authorship  and  the  historical  character  of 
even  the  earliest  chapters  of  Genesis  seemed 
then  to  all  schools  in  England  an  essential 
part  of  revelation.  If  they  were  disproved, 
the  structure  would  fall.  There  was  a  storm 
of  protest ;  for  a  moment  Pusey  and  Shaftes- 
bury joined  their  forces,  and  Bishop  Gray 
of  Capetown,  using  the  liberty  of  a  voluntary 
Church,  gave  effect  to  the  wishes  of  a  majority 
of  the  bishops  and  clergy  in  England.  He 
uttered  an  excommunication  which  did  not 
affect  Colenso's  legal  status,  and  which  was 
ignored  by  his  English  friends.  Stanley, 
for  instance,  subsequently  invited  him  to 
preach  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

There  was,  in  fact,  a  steady  growth  of 
feeling  within  the  Church  in  favour  of  less 
dogmatism.  It  won  a  striking  victory  in 
1865,  when  the  rigid  Elizabethan  form  of 
subscription  for  the  clergy,  which  ran, 
"  I  willingly  and  from  my  heart  subscribe  " 
to  the  Articles  and  Prayer  Book  "  and  to  all 
things  therein  contained,"  was  modified  into 
the  vaguer  profession  of  a  belief  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  as  therein  set  forth, 
is  "  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God."  It  is 
evident  to-day  that  the  question  relative 
to  the  Bible  at  the  ordination   of   deacons 


242  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

will  soon  undergo  a  similar  modification. 
This  widening  of  thought,  more  prevalent 
among  the  devout  laity  than  among  the  clergy, 
was  in  great  measure  the  work  of  men  who 
did  not  belong,  in  an  accurate  sense,  to  the 
Broad  Church  party.  Frederick  Denison 
Maurice  was  one  of  them.  The  men  of  the 
Oxford  Movement  had  no  words  of  scorn 
and  suspicion  too  strong  for  what  they 
deemed  his  vagueness  and  heterodoxy.  No 
one  has  so  deeply  influenced  their  successors. 
Maurice  had  no  sympathy  with  Colenso's 
views.  He  proposed  to  resign  his  benefice 
that  his  protest  against  them  might  be 
obviously  disinterested.  For  there  was 
danger  lest,  in  the  anger  of  the  time,  men 
should  be  terrorized  into  professing  more 
confidence  in  the  traditional  view  than  they 
really  felt,  and  Maurice  encountered  with  a 
noble  protest  the  veiled  threat  contained  in 
Pusey's  demand  that  the  clergy  should 
"  for  the  love  of  God  "  publish  their  adherence 
to  the  manifesto  he  issued.  With  Maurice 
may  be  classed  the  three  Cambridge  divines 
who  gave  a  new  depth  and  accuracy  and  a 
new  direction  to  English  biblical  and  patristic 
studies.  They  turned  their  attention  to 
the  earliest  period  of  Christianity.  No  longer 
was    the    developed    system    of    the    age    of 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    243 

Councils  to  be  the  chief  topic  of  the  scholar's 
interest,  for  it  was  ceasing  to  be  regarded  as 
an  authority  above  criticism.  That  period 
for  English  scholars  has  fallen,  for  the  time, 
into  comparative  neglect,  and  the  earlier 
records  are  being  searched  as  containing 
the  material  for  the  history  of  the  Church's 
development.  Lightfoot,  Westcott  and  Hort, 
especially  the  last,  were  influenced  by  Maurice. 
To  them  must  be  added  Edwin  Hatch,  of 
Oxford.  He  did  not  succeed  in  tracing  out 
the  growth  of  the  Christian  ministry,  but  he 
indicated  the  evidences  that  must  be  taken 
into  account,  and  set  in  motion  an  enquiry 
which  will,  however  it  end,  deeply  influence 
traditional  views.  The  work  of  these  men, 
and  of  many  others,  has  been  to  promote 
an  open  mind  ;  if  it  has  narrowed  the  area 
of  positive  assertion  it  has  furnished  new  lines 
of  thought  and  new  grounds  for  conviction. 
This  service  has  been  the  more  thankworthy  in- 
asmuch as  criticism  such  as  has  already  worked 
a  revolution  in  our  conception  of  the  Old 
Testament  has  spread  irresistibly  to  the  New, 
and  also  to  the  earlier  history  of  the  Church. 
Hence,  to  speak  only  of  the  effect  of  these 
views  of  Scripture  upon  doctrine,  or  rather 
upon  the  proofs  for  doctrine  commonly 
advanced,    whole   libraries    have    been    anti- 


244  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

quated  and  rendered  irrelevant.  The  assump- 
tion upon  which  the  classical  exegesis  was 
based  can  no  longer  be  accepted  without 
demur.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
belief  is  not  held  on  any  single  ground,  and 
that,  among  the  complex  reasons  which  have 
convinced  Christians,  scriptural  proof,  in  the 
old  sense,  may  have  been  made  needlessly 
conspicuous  because  it  could  be  easily  put  in 
logical  form.  Hence  the  opponents  of  this 
critical  school  have  had  no  need  to  think  that 
everything  was  at  stake,  and  no  justification  for 
extreme  hostility.  The  school,  rather  than 
party,  of  which  we  are  speaking,  has  had  a 
share  disproportionately  small  in  view  of  the 
zeal  and  capacity  of  its  members  in  the 
administrative  work  of  the  Church.  It  has 
been  suspected  by  the  Evangelicals  and  the 
upholders  of  tradition,  and  overshadowed  by 
the  activities  of  the  busy  "  Good  Churchmen," 
the  fourth  and  last  group  who  must  be 
mentioned. 

Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce  is  their  pattern, 
and  in  great  measure  their  founder.  He  was 
a  man  of  genius,  and  the  tide  was  in  his 
favour.  When  he  became  Bishop  of  Oxford 
in  1845,  the  normal  churchman  was  the 
Evangelical.  At  his  death  as  Bishop  of 
Winchester  in  1873,  his  school  was  predomi- 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    245 

nant  as  it  has  continued  to  be,  and  the 
Evangelicals,  though  still  important,  had 
become  a  sectional  interest.  At  the  same 
time  the  men  who  represented  the  Oxford 
Movement  had  been  shouldered  out  from  their 
position  as  the  main  army  of  an  advancing 
cause,  and  reduced  to  be  somewhat  irregular 
skirmishers  on  its  flank.  With  him  must 
be  associated  many  others,  such  as  Dean 
Hook  before  him  and  Archbishop  Benson 
in  the  generation  after  him.  They  have 
shared  his  success  ;  they  have  shared  also, 
in  some  measure,  the  resentment  of  the 
Evangelicals  against  Wilberforce  and  the 
suspicion  of  the  Oxford  school.  Their  work 
has  been  effectual  in  the  levelling  upwards  of 
ecclesiastical  thought  and  practice  :  but, 
in  spite  of  many  adaptations,  inward  as  well 
as  outward,  to  the  Oxford  mode,  no  conces- 
sions have  been  made  on  that  side.  There 
has  been  no  levelling  down.  Thus  the 
success  has  been  seriously  qualified,  and  a 
central  or  national  standard  of  thought 
and  practice  has  not  been  attained,  in  spite 
of  a  widespread  uniformity  in  externals 
and  in  the  use  of  words  ;  perhaps  it  is  not 
desirable  that  it  should  be  attained.  The 
merit  of  Wilberforce,  who  has  dictated  the 
methods  of  the  Church  since  his  day,  lay  in 


246  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

his  inculcation  by  practice  as  well  as  precept 
of  the  value  of  work,  not  only  as  an  evidence 
but  also  as  a  source  of  spiritual  life.  He 
was  indefatigable  himself,  and  set  a  new 
standard  for  his  own  order  of  the  ministry. 
His  example,  as  well  as  his  gift  for  stimulating 
others,  excited  in  the  clergy  a  new  zeal  for 
parish  work,  for  cottage  visiting,  for  manifold 
organization,  for  mission  preaching.  These 
methods,  having  lost  the  attraction  of  novelty, 
seem  to  be  less  effective  now  than  once  they 
were.  But  the  clergy  have  attained  through 
this  discipline  to  a  high  degree  of  professional 
efficiency  :  and  also,  largely  through  Wilber- 
force's  influence,  to  a  somewhat  professional 
habit  of  thought  and  outlook.  In  this  respect 
the  theological  colleges  have  been  influential. 
If  Wilberforce,  by  setting  the  example  of 
activity,  diverted  men  from  controversy 
to  more  fruitful  employments,  it  was  not 
because  he  was  indifferent  to  dogma.  He 
was,  in  fact,  the  convinced  advocate  of  a 
central  doctrine,  which  he  believed  to  be 
demonstrably  true,  and  which  was  in  his  eyes 
the  peculiar  possession  of  the  English  Church. 
Therefore  he  was  equally  opposed  to  teachers 
who  minimized  the  characteristics  of  the 
Church  as  unimportant  when  compared  with 
the  common  heritage  of  orthodox  Protestant- 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    247 

ism,  and  to  those  who  regarded  Rome  or  the 
Middle  Ages  as  a  pattern  which  men  should 
adopt  as  their  guide.  There  might  be  a 
judicious  imitation  of  some  of  their  methods, 
but  it  must  be  in  no  spirit  of  self -depreciation. 
Rather  must  men  be  thankful  and  proud  that 
they  belonged  to  a  Church  that  was  pure  and 
primitive  and  efficient.  With  the  same  con- 
fidence he  confronted  doubt  and  all  that 
suggested  it.  His  first  campaign  in  this 
direction,  against  the  appointment  of  Hamp- 
den to  the  see  of  Hereford,  ended  in  ignominy  ; 
he  was  more  successful,  for  the  moment, 
against  "  Essays  and  Reviews  "  and  Bishop 
Colenso.  But  his  chief  efforts  were  against 
such  advances  in  natural  science  as  seemed 
to  cast  doubt  upon  current  theological  views. 
He  is  largely  responsible,  in  the  so-called 
conflict  between  religion  and  science,  for 
the  methods  of  scorn  and  ridicule  that  were 
employed  by  the  older  school.  Yet  the 
mischief  he  did  was  far  more  than  com.pensated 
by  the  spirit  of  energy  that  he  diffused 
and  by  his  own  achievements.  His  gift 
for  management,  which  made  him  the  dictator 
of  the  episcopate  in  his  day,  found  an  oppor- 
tunity in  Convocation,  the  revival  of  which 
in  1855  was  in  great  measure  his  work,  and 
every  organization  of  the  Church  was  stimu- 


248  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

lated  by  him.  Such  a  man  naturally  magni- 
fied his  office,  and  gained  for  it  an  increase 
of  respect  from  the  public.  That  cult  of 
bishops  as  such,  apart  from  their  personal 
qualities  or  the  importance  of  their  sees, 
which  perhaps  reached  its  climax  at  the 
Lambeth  Conference  of  1898,  was  a  new 
phenomenon  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

But  the  successive  conferences  of  bishops 
at  Lambeth,  though  at  first  regarded  with 
doubt,  have  been  so  wisely  conducted  that 
they  have  undoubtedly  guided  opinion  at 
home  and  tended  to  the  unity  of  the  Church 
throughout  the  world.  They  have  been 
held  at  intervals  of  ten  years  since  1867, 
and  on  each  occasion  the  number  of  bishops 
present — none  other  are  invited — has  in- 
creased. This  growth  of  the  episcopate, 
though  it  has  been  more  rapid  in  proportion 
than  that  of  their  flocks,  has  yet  indicated 
a  substantial  growth  of  the  communion. 
But  only  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
among  communities  of  English  descent,  are 
churchmen  relatively  as  numerous  as  in 
England.  In  Canada  they  are  fewer  than 
the  Methodists  ;  in  the  United  States  they 
are  somewhat  insignificant  in  number,  though 
considerable   in   influence.     It   is   often   said 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    249 

that  this  is  the  result  of  the  denial  of  bishops 
to  the  colonies  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
But  the  Roman  Catholics  had  none,  even 
after  bishops  had  been  consecrated  for  our 
American  communion  in  1784  and  1787 ; 
and  it  is  almost  certain  that  the  revolution 
which  founded  the  United  States  would  have 
broken  out  even  earlier  had  English  ministers 
consented  to  the  establishment  of  episcopacy, 
which  was  associated  in  the  mind  of  New 
England  with  persecutions  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Missions  among  the  heathen  have 
shared  in  the  remarkable  success  which  has 
marked  all  such  efforts  for  more  than  a 
century  past. 

The  dominance  of  the  "  Good  Churchmen," 
commended  by  the  great  example  of  Wilber- 
force,  still  continues.  But  their  teaching, 
like  their  practice,  had  been  increasingly 
coloured  by  the  influence  of  the  Oxford 
school ;  so  much  so,  that  in  many  cases,  if 
the  antecedents  were  unknown,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  determine  whether  the 
lineage  were  from  Wilberforce  or  from 
Pusey.  The  pride  in  a  central  position,  as 
clearly  marked  off  from  Rome  as  from 
Geneva,  has  often  disappeared.  At  the  same 
time  extremer  men,  sometimes  claiming 
Roman  examples  as  the  sanction  for  their 


250  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

procedure  and  doctrine,  are  as  conspicuous 
as  ever,  while  on  the  other  wing  EvangeH- 
calism  is  earnest  and  influential,  if  not  so 
dogmatic  as  once  it  was.  With  general 
approval  many  practical  reforms  have  been 
achieved  ;  abuses  in  regard  to  the  patronage 
of  churches  have  been  remedied,  and  inefficient 
clergy  are  more  easily  displaced.  The  clergy 
have  never  been  more  active  or  better  sup- 
ported by  the  work  and  the  wealth  of  the 
laity.  An  increasing  amount  of  this  support 
is  being  devoted  to  the  education  of  recruits 
for  the  clerical  body  ;  at  present  only  half 
of  the  clergy  have  passed  through  the  older 
Universities,  and  the  problem  of  training 
a  multitude  of  candidates,  part  of  whose 
maintenance,  if  not  the  whole,  must  be 
provided  for  them,  is  being  so  seriously 
considered  that  we  may  soon  hope  for  a 
happy  solution.  Convocations,  Houses  of 
Laymen,  Church  Congresses  and  other  assem- 
blages, not  to  speak  of  a  copious  literature, 
testify  to  a  vivid  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  the  Church.  On  the  other  hand,  a  great 
change  in  English  society  has  released  the 
indifferent  from  the  duty,  which  respect- 
ability laid  upon  them  a  generation  ago, 
of  attendance  at  church.  At  the  same 
time  the  mass  of  working  people  who  have 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    251 

never,  since  the  industrial  revolution  of  the 
eighteenth  century  crowded  them  into  towns, 
formed  the  habit  of  Sunday  worship,  has 
not  been  moved  by  the  efforts  made  on  its 
behalf.  The  aggregate  number  of  the  devout 
among  them  is  happily  considerable,  yet 
they  are  but  units  in  the  multitude.  However, 
in  spite  of  disappointments,  good  work  has 
had  good  results,  and  the  appeal  of  Christ 
has  been  heard.  Never,  indeed,  has  the 
interest  in  religion,  though  not  always  in 
organized  religion,  been  keener  than  it  is 
to-day.  It  shows  itself  in  a  philanthropy, 
directly  inspired  by  religion,  which  is  ceasing 
to  patronize  those  whom  it  benefits.  It 
shows  itself  also  in  the  general  recognition 
of  the  importance,  as  a  necessary  part  of 
Christian  life,  of  missions  to  the  non-Christian 
world.  It  shows  itself  in  a  widespread  interest 
in  the  psychology  of  religion,  its  bases  and  its 
phenomena.  All  these  lines  of  thought  have 
begun  to  draw  Christians  together,  to  make 
the  differences  seem  smaller  than  the  common 
heritage.  They  are  also  having  a  solvent 
effect  upon  the  more  rigid  and  traditional 
presentations  of  the  faith  :  and,  even  where 
the  old  standards  are  most  jealously  main- 
tained, we  may  often  find  the  position  being 
defended  by  arguments  which  savour,  to  use 


252  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

the  diction  of  the  day,  of  pragmatism  or 
modernism.  But  the  substance  of  the  faith 
is  securely  held,  and  the  interest  in  history 
engendered  by  our  universal  habit  of  explain- 
ing the  present  as  a  development  out  of  the 
past  is  leading  our  generation  to  attach  a  new 
value  to  continuity.  If  the  explanations 
and  doctrines  which  have  clustered  round  the 
historic  ministry  are  an  obstacle  to  union, 
the  fact  of  the  succession  which  links  the 
English  Church  to  the  beginnings  of  Christian- 
ity is  conspicuous,  and  is  to-day  a  magnet 
of  attraction  to  English-speaking  Christians. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  best  general  History  of  the  English  Church  is  that 
edited  by  Stephens  and  Hunt,  9  vols.  London,  1901- 
1910. 

All  standard  histories  deal  with  Church  matters  in 
their  periods,  and  should  be  consulted. 

Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History  must  be  read  for  the  early 
period.     It  has  often  been  translated. 

Matthew  Paris'  Chronica  Majora  will  serve  as  a  speci- 
men of  mediaeval  Churchmanship.  Translated  by  Giles 
in  Bohn's  "  Antiquarian  Library." 

For  Wyolif  the  best  biography  is  Lechler,  translated 
by  Lorimer,  John  W.  and  His  English  Precursors^  last 
edition,  London,  1884. 

R.  W.  Dixon,  History  of  the  Church  of  England  from 
the  Abolition  of  the  Roman  Jurisdiction^  1529-1663. 
(6  vols.,  Oxford,  1902)  is  the  best  authority. 

J.  A.  Froude  should  be  read  with  caution. 

Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs  explains  the  passions  of  his 
day. 

For  the  later  Elizabethan  period  R.  G.  Usher,  The 
Reconstructdon  of  the  English  Church  (2  vols.,  New  York, 
1910),  and  the  same  author's  High  Commission  (Oxford, 
1913),  are  important. 

The  seventeenth  century,  beside  S.  R.  Gardiner's 
History  of  England  (1603-56)  and  its  continuation  by  C.  H. 
Firth  to  the  death  of  Cromwell,  is  best  studied  in  con- 
temporary writers,  such  as  Clarendon  and  Burnet, 
and  in  the  numerous  biographies. 

C.  J.  Abbey  and  J.  H.  Overton  have  written  the 
standard  work.  The  English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century  (2  vols.,  London,  1878).  The  other  writings  of 
263 


254  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Canon  Abbey  and  Canon  Overton  on  the  period  should 
also  be  read. 

John  Wesley's  Diary  (Standard  edition,  now  in  course 
of  publication)  should  be  read. 

The  Nineteenth  Century  may  best  be  studied  in 
biographies,  especially  those  of  Newman,  Pusey, 
WiLBERFORCE,  Tait,  Maurice,  Benson,  and  Creighton. 

The  Constitutional  history  may  be  read  in  Makower 
(translated,  London,  1895),  and  in  Gee  and  Harey, 
Documents  illustrative  of  English  Church  History y  London, 
1896. 

The  general  history  of  Dissent  from  the  Long  Parliament 
to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  well  given  in 
J.  Stoughton's  History  of  Religion  in  England  (2nd  ed., 
8  vols.,  London,  1901). 

In  conclusion,  since  the  course  of  events  cannot  be 
understood  without  a  knowledge  of  the  phases  of  religious 
thought,  the  sacred  poetry,  devotional  literature  and 
sermons  of  the  period  that  is  being  studied  should  always 
be  consulted,  and  the  biographies  of  even  unimportant 
persons  throw  light  upon  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  their 
time,  and  always  deserve  attention. 


INDEX 


ABBOT,  Abp.,  158 
Aidan,  St.,  20 
Alculn,  27 
Alien  priories,  Q2 
Alphapc,  St.,  30 
America,  Churoh  In,  24*  f. 
Anabaptist*,  126 
Anuc,  Queen,  185 
An<(rlru,  St.,  37,  7P 
Archdeacons,  75,  102 
Arminianism,  lrt4,  193 
Arnold,  Dr.,  238 
Atterbnry,  Bp.,  187 
Augustine,  St.,  9  f. 
Avignon,  91,  C6  f. 

Bancroft,  Abp.,  145,  156 

Baxter,  178 

Bede,  Ven.,  11,  57 

Benson,  Abp.,  245 

Bible,  English,  98 

Bishops,  14,  16  f.,  23,  31,  40,  45, 

48,  52,  101,  113,  122, 131, 205, 

217,  248 
Boniface,  St.,  27 
Bonner,  Bp.,  121,  132 
Broad  Church  Party,  224,  238 
Bucer,  127 
BuUinger,  124 
Banyan,  17(3 
Burnet,  Bp.,  181 
Butler,  Bp.,  189 

Calvinists,  144,  146,  15S,  164,  193 

Canon  Law,  71  f. 

Canons  of  1604,  154 

Canons,  29,  48 

Canterbury,  20,  24,  31,  76  f.,  79  f., 

138 
Carthusians,  107 
Casaubon,  160 
Cathedrals,  48  f.,  216 
Celtic  Church,  15,  20  f. 
Chad,  St.,  20 
Charles  I.,  162,  175 
Churchwardens,  110 
Cistercians,  60,  104 
Clergy,  taxation  of,  43  f. 
Colenso,  Bp.,  240 
Colleges,  foundation  of,  104  f. 
Comprehension,  177,  181 
Convocation,  45  f.,  61,  135,  154, 

185,  247 
Cranmer,  Abp.,  76,  126,  123,  131 


Crusades,  43  f. 

Deist*,  189 

Dissent,  176,  213  f.,  222,227 
Divine  Right,  162,  178 
Dominic,  St.,  64 
Dunstan,  St.,  29 

Ecclesiastical  Commission,  216 
Edward  I.,  45,  85,  90 
Edward  VI.,  122,  130 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  134  f. 
England,  Conversion  of,  10,  20 
"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  240,  247 
Evangelicalism,  191,  195  f.,  201, 

207,    211    f.,    220,    222,    224, 

229,  231 

Feudalism,  38  f. 

Forgeries,  76  f. 

Foxe,  137 

French  Revolution,  206  f. 

Friars,  62  f.,  107 

Froudc,  H.,  223 

Gardiner,  Bp.,  122,  132 
Germany,  Conversion  of,  27 
Germany,  Religion  in,  93 
Germany,  Reformation     of,     115, 

124 
Glebe,  13 

"  Good  Churchmen,"  244  f. 
Gorham  case,  236 
Greek  Church,  160 
Green,  T.  H.,  237 
Gregory  the  Great,  8  f.,  19 

Hadrian  IV.,  55,  85 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  153 

Hatch,  Edwin,  243 

Henry  III.,  85,  90 

Henry  VIII.,  50,  61,  101,  105,  119, 

154 
Herbert,  George,  162 
High  Church  Party,  159  f.,  164, 

175,    1S3    f.,    187,    193,    209, 

218,  221,  244  f. 
High  Commission,  148,  150 
Hooii,  Dean,  245 
Hooker,  127,  145 
Hooper,  Bp.,  129 
Hort,  F.  J.  A.,24« 

Independents,  141  f.,  167,  198 


255 


256 


INDEX 


Investiture,  79 
Ireland,  85 

James  I.,  151 
James  II.,  178 
Jowett,  Benj.,  239 

Keble,  218 

Knox,  John,  129,  137 

Lambeth  Confersnces,  248 
Lanfranc,  37,  75 
Langton,  Abp.,  80 
Latimer,  Bp.,  101 
Latitudinarians,  185,  190 
Laud,  Abp.,  162  f. 
Leo  X.,  116 
Lightfoot,  Bp.,  243 
Liverpool,  Lord,  213 
Locke,  177 
Lollards,  98 

Margaret,  the  Lady,  105 
"  Martin  Marprelate,"  147 
Martyr,  Peter,  127 
Mary,  Queen,  131 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  242 
Methodism,  195  f.,  206,  214 
Milman,  Dean,  208 
Mouasticism,  9,  11,  29,  48,  53  f., 

61  f.,  103, 120 
Moravians,  191 
More,  Hannah,  202 

Newman,  Cardinal,  219,  222 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  177 

Nonjurors,  183 

Nuns,  80,  57 

Observant  Franciscans,  108 

Ockham,  William  cf,  93 

"  Old  Minsters,"  12,  19,  34  f. 

Orders,   128,   139,  145,  168,  161, 

172,  191,  252 
Oriel  School,  208,  219 
Osmund,  St.,  49 
Oxford  Movement,  209,  218 

Paganism,  English,  10,  12 
Parish  clergy,  14,  38,  40,  46,  55, 

108,  148,  204,  207,  246 
Parker,  Abp.,  138 
"  Parson's  Freehold,"  16,  41,  156, 

211,  230 
Patronage,  13,  16,  41,  110 
Paul's,  St.,  Cathedral,  18,  49 
Peter's  Pence,  26 
Philip  of  Spain,  132,  134 


Pole,  Cardinal,  182 
Presbyterians,    141,    144,    166   I., 

177,  182,  185  f.,  194 
Provinces,  Ecclesiastical,  19,  43 
Prussia,  Church  of,  191,  225 
Puritans,  136,  139.  151  f.,  163 
Pusey,  Dr.,  219,  242 

Restoration,  The,  171 

Ridley,  Bp.,  130 

Ritualism,  231  f.,  245 

Rome  19,  24,  28,  38  f.,  42,  69  t., 
73  f.,  78,  81,  89  f.,  95, 114, 119, 
121,  132  f.,  134  f.,  150,  159  f., 
204,  215,  228,  237,  249 

Rural  deans,  75,  208 

Salisbury,  49  f. 
Bancroft,  Abp.,  183 
Savoy  Conference,  178 
Scotland,  85,  92,  141,  158 
Separatists,  143,  174 
Sheldon,  Abp.,  46 
Stanley,  Dean,  239 
Supreme  Governor,  140 
Supreme  Head,  119,  182 
Swiss  Reformation,  124 

Theodore,  Abp.,  21,  26 
Thomas,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  79 
Tillotson,  Abp.,  181 
"  Tract*  for  the  Times,"  222 
Tithe,  32  f.,  51,  64,  217 

Unitarians,  126,  182,  200,  214 

Vicarages,  51,  54  f.,  Ill 
Vikings,  28 

Wake,  Abp.,  187,  191 
Wales,  86 

Wesley,  John,  192  f. 
Westcott,  Bp.,  248 
Westminster  Assembly,  165 
Whitby,  Council  of,  22 
Whitefleld,  George,  196 
Whitgift,  Abp.,  106,  144,  153 
Wilberforce,  Bp.  S.,  244  f. 
Wilberforce,  Wm.,  202 
Wilfrid  of  York,  22 
William  III.,  183 
Winchelsey,  Abp.,  47 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  105,  122 
Worcester,  101 
Wyclif,  94 
Wykeham,  Wm.  of,  92 

York,  21  f.,  31,  47,  76 


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History  and  Qeography 


3.  THE   FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

By   Hii.AiRE    Belloc,   M.A.    (With  Maps.)    "  It  is  coloured  with  all 

the  militancy  of  the  author's  temperament." — Daily  N'cws. 

4.  HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

By  G.  H.  Perris.  The  Rt.  Hon.  James  Bryce  writes;  "I  have  read  it 
with  much  interest  and  pleasure,  admiring  the  skill  with  which  you  have 
managed  to  compress  so  many  facts  and  views  into  so  small  a  volume." 

8.  POLAR  EXPLORATION 

By  Dr  W.S.Bruce,  F.R.S.E.,  Leader  of  the  "  Scotia  "Expedition.  (With 
Maps.)    "A  very  freshly  written  and  interesting  narrative." — The  Times. 

12.  THE  OPENING-UP  OF  AFRICA 

By  Sir  H.H.Johnston,  G.C.M.G.,F.Z.S.  (With  Maps.)  "The  Home 
University  Library  is  much  enriched  by  this  excellent  work." — Daily  Mail. 

13-  MEDIEVAL  EUROPE 

By  H.  W.  C.  Davis,  M.A.  (With  Maps.)  "  One  more  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  it  takes  a  complete  master  of  the  subject  to  write  briefly  upon 
it." — Manchester  Guardian. 


14-  THE  PAPACY  &'  MODERN  TIMES  (1303-1870) 

By  William  Barry,  D.D.  "Dr  Barry  has  a  wide  range  of  knowledge 
and  an  artist's  power  of  selection."— ilf««<:/z<rj/'^r  Guardian. 

23.  HISTORY  OF  OUR  TIME  (1885-1911) 

By  G.  P.  GoocH,  M.A.  "  Mr  Gooch  contrives  to  breathe  vitality  into  his  story, 
and  to  give  us  the  flesh  as  well  as  the  bones  of  recent  happenings."— C><5«rz/^r, 

25.  THE  CIVILISATION  OF  CHINA 

By  H.  A.  Giles,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Chinese  at  Cambridge.  "In  aU  the 
mass  of  facts.  Professor  Giles  never  becomes  dull.  He  is  always  ready  with  a 
ghost  story  or  a  street  adventure  for  the  reader's  recreation." — Spectator. 

29.  THE  DA  WN  OF  HISTORY 

By  J.  L.  MvRES,  M.A.,  F.S.A.,  Wykeham  Professor  of  Ancient  History,  Oxford. 
"  There  is  not  a  page  in  it  that  is  not  suggestive."— Manchester  Guardian. 

33.  THE  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 
A  Study  in  Political  Evolution 

By  Prof.  A.  F.  Pollard,  M.A.  With  a  Chronological  Table.  "  It  takes  its 
place  at  once  among  the  authoritative  works  on  English  \c\sX.Qry:'— Observer. 

34.  CANADA 

By  A.  G.  Bradley.    "  The  volume  makes  an  immediate  appeal  to  the  man  who 
wants  to  know  something  vivid  and  true  about  Canada."— Ca«a^za«  Gazette. 

37.  PEOPLES  &-  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

■  By  Sir  T.  W.  Holderness,  K.C.S.I.,  Permanent  Under-Secretary  of  State 
of  the  India  Ofiice.  "  Just  the  book  which  newspaper  readers  require  to-day, 
and  a  marvel  of  comprehensiveness."— /'a//  Matt  Gazette. 

42.  ROME 

By  W.  Warde  Fowler,  M.A.  "  A  masterly  sketch  of  Roman  character  and 
of  what  it  did  for  the  v^ox\d."—T/ie  Spectator. 

48.  THE  AMERICAN  CIVIL  WAR 

By  F.  L.  Paxson,  Professor  of  American  History,  Wisconsin  University. 
(With  Maps.)     "  A  stirring  study."— T'A^r  Guardian. 

51.   WARFARE  IN  BRITAIN 

By  Hilaire  Belloc,  M.A.  "  Rich  in  suggestion  for  the  historical  student." 
— Edinburgh  Evening  News. 

55.  MASTER  MARINERS 

By  J.  R.  Spears.  "A  continuous  story  of  shipping  progress  and  adventure.  . . 
It  reads  like  a  romance."— G/ai-^t^w  Herald. 

61.  NAPOLEON 

By  Herbert  Fisher,  LL.D.,  F.B.A.,  Vice-Chancellor  of  Sheffield  University. 
(With  Maps.)  The  story  of  the  great  Bonaparte's  youth,  his  career,  and  his 
downfall,  with  some  sayings  of  Napoleon,  a  genealogy,  and  a  bibliography. 

66.  THE  NAVY  AND  SEA  POWER 

By  David  Hannay.  The  author  traces  the  growth  of  naval  power  from  early 
times,and  discusses  its  principles  and  effects  upon  the  history  of  theWestern  world. 

71.  GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

■  By  Charles  Tower.  "  It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  better  summary."— 
Daily  News. 

82.  PREHISTORIC  BRITAIN 

■  By  Robert  Munro.  M.A.,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.E.    (Illustrated.) 

2 


Literature  and  ^rt 


2.  SHAKESPEARE 

By  John  Masf.field.  "  The  book  is  a  joy.  We  have  had  half-a-dozen  more 
learned  books  on  Shakespeare  in  the  last  few  years,  but  not  one  so  wise." — 
Manchester  Guardian. 

27.  ENGLISH  LITER  A  TURE :  MODERN 

By  G.  H.  Mair,  M.A.     "Altogether a  fresh  and  individual  hook."— 03server. 

35.  LANDMARKS  IN  FRENCH  LITERATURE 

By  G.  L.  Strachey.  "  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  a  better  account  of 
French  Literature  could  be  given  in  250  small  pages." — The  Times. 

39.  ARCHITECTURE 

By  Prof.  W,  R.  Lethaey.  (Over  forty  Illustrations.)  "  Popular  guide-books 
to  architecture  are,  as  a  rule,  not  worth  much.  This  volume  is  a  welcome  excep- 
\ion." — Building  News.     "  Delightfully  bright  reading." — Christian  World. 

43.  ENGLISH  LITERATURE'.  MEDIEVAL 

By  Prof.  W.  P.  Ker,  M.A.  "  Prof.  Ker,  one  of  the  soundest  scholars  in  English 
we  have,  is  the  very  man  to  put  an  outline  of  English  Mediaeval  Literature 
before  the  uninstructed  public.  His  knowledge  and  taste  are  unimpeachable, 
and  his  style  is  effective,  simple,  yet  never  dry." — The  Athenceum, 

45-  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 

By  L.  Pearsall  Smith,  M.A,  "A  wholly  fascinating  study  of  the  different 
streams  that  went  to  the  making  of  the  great  river  of  the  English  speech." — 
Daily  News. 

52.  GREAT  WRITERS  OF  AMERICA 

By  Prof.  J.  Erskine  and  Prof.  W.  P.  Trent.  "An  admirable  summary,  from 
Franklin  to  Mark  Twain,  enlivened  by  a  dry  humour." — Athenceuvt. 

63.  PAINTERS  AND  PAINTING 

By  Sir  Frederick  Weumore.  (With  16  half-tone  illustrations.)  From  the 
Primitives  to  the  Impressionists. 

64.  DR  JOHNSON  AND  HLS  CIRCLE 

By  John  Bailey,  M.A.     "A  most  delightful  &%%^y."— Christian  World. 

65.  THE  LITERATURE  OF  GERMANY 

By  Professor  J.  G.  Robertson,  M.A.,  Ph.D.  "Under  the  author's  skilful 
treatment  the  subject  shows  life  and  continuity.  ' — Athenaum. 

70.   THE  VICTORIAN  AGE  IN  LITERATURE 

By  G.  K.  Chesterton.  "  The  book  is  everywhere  immensely  alive,  and  no 
one  will  put  it  down  without  a  sense  of  having  taken  a  tonic  or  received  a  series 
of  electric  shocks." — The  Times. 

73.  THE   WRITING  OF  ENGLISH. 

By  W.  T.  Brewster,  A.M.,  Professor  of  English  in  Columbia  University. 
"  Sensible  in  its  teaching,  and  not  over -rigidly  conventional  in  its  manner." — 
Manchester  Guardian. 

75.  ANCIENT  ART  AND  RITUAL. 

By  Jane  E.  Harrison,  LL.D.,  D.Litt.  "  Charming  in  style  and  learned  in 
manner." — Daily  News. 

3 


76.  EURIPIDES  AND  HIS  AGE 

By  Gilbert  Murray,  D.Litt.,  LL.D.,  F.B.A.,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  at 
Oxford.  "  A  beautiful  piece  of  work.  .  .  .  Just  in  the  fulness  of  time,  and 
exactly  in  the  right  place.  .  .  ,  Euripides  has  come  into  his  own." — The  Nation. 


7.  MODERN  GEOGRAPHY 

By  Dr  Marion  Newbigin.  (Illustrated.)  "Geography,  again  :  what  a  dull, 
tedious  study  that  was  wont  to  be  !  .  .  .  But  Miss  Marion  Newbigin  invests  its 
dry  bones  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of  romantic  interest." — Daily  Telegraph. 

9-   THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PLANTS 

By  Dr  D.  H.  Scott,  M.  A.,  F.R.S.,  late  Hon.  Keeper  of  the  Jodrell  Laboratory, 
Kew.  (Fully  illustrated.)  "The  information  is  as  trustworthy  as  first-hand 
knowledge  can  make  it.  .  .  .  Dr  Scott's  candid  and  familiar  style  makes  the 
difficult  subject  both  fascinating  and  easy." — Gardeners'  Chronicle, 

17.  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE 

By  W.  Leslie  Mackenzie,  M.D.,  Local  Government  Board,  Edinburgh. 
"  Dr  Mackenzie  adds  to  a  thorough  grasp  of  the  problems  an  illuminating  style, 
and  an  arresting  manner  of  treating  a  subject  often  dull  and  sometimes 
unsavoury. " — Economist. 

18.  INTRODUCTION  TO  MATHEMATICS 

By  A.  N.  Whitehead,  Sc.D.,  F.R.S.  (With  Diagrams.)  "Mr  Whitehead 
has  discharged  with  conspicuous  success  the  task  he  is  so  exceptionally  qualified 
to  undertake.  For  he  is  one  of  our  great  authorities  upon  the  foundations  of 
the  science." — JVestminster  Gazette. 

19.  THE  ANIMAL  WORLD 

By  Professor  F.  W.  Gamble,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.  With  Introduction  by  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge.  (Many  Illustrations.)  "  A  delightful  and  instructive  epitome  of  animal 
(and  vegetable)  life.  ...  A  fascinating  and  suggestive  survey." — Morning  Post. 

20.  EVOLUTION 

By  Professor  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and  Professor  Patrick  Geddes.  "A 
many-coloured  and  romantic  panorama,  opening  up,  like  no  other  book  we 
know,  a  rational  vision  of  world-development." — Belfast  News-Letter. 

22.  CRIME  AND  INSANITY 

By  Dr  C.  A.  Mercier.  "  Furnishes  much  valuable  information  from  one 
occupying  the  highest  position  among  medico-legal  ^psychologists."— Asylum 
News. 

28.  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH 

By  Sir  W.  F.  Barrett,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Physics,  Royal  College  of 
Science,  Dublin,  1873-1910.  "What  he  has  to  say  on  thought-reading, 
hypnotism,  telepathy,  crystal-vision,  spiritualism,  divinings,  and  so  on,  will  be 
read  with  avidity." — Dundee  Courier. 

31.  ASTRONOMY 

By  A.  R.  HiNKS,  M.A.,  Chief  Assistant,  Cambridge  Observatory.  "  Original 
in  thought,  eclectic  in  substance,  and  critical  in  treatment.  .  .  .  No  better 
little  book  is  available." — School  World. 

4 


32.  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENCE 

By^.  Arthur  Thomson,  M. A.,  Regius  Professor  of  Natural  History,  Aberdeen 
University.  "Professor  Thomson's  delightful  literary  style  is  well  known  ;  and 
here  he  discourses  freshly  and  easily  on  the  methods  of  science  and  its  relations 
with  philosophy,  art,  religion,  and  practical  life." — Aberdeen  Journal, 

36.  CLIMATE  AND  WEATHER 

By  Prof.  H.  N.  Dickson,  D.Sc.Oxon.,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E.,  President  of  the 
Royal  Meteorological  Society.  (With  Diagrams.)  "The  author  has  succeeded 
in  presenting  in  a  very  lucid  and  agreeable  manner  the  causes  of  the  movements 
of  the  atmosphere  and  of  the  more  stable  winds." — Manchester  Guardian. 

41.  ANTHROPOLOGY 

By  R.  R.  Marett,  M,A.,  Reader  in  Social  Anthropology  in  Oxford  University. 
"An  absolutely  perfect  handbook,  so  clear  that  a  child  could  understand  it,  so 
fascinating  and  human  that  it  beats  fiction  '  to  a  frazzle.'" — Morning  Leader. 

44.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PHYSIOLOGY 

By  Prof.  J.  G.  McKendrick,  M.D.  "It  is  a  delightful  and  wonderfully 
comprehensive  handling  of  a  subject  which,  while  of  importance  to  all,  does 
not  readily  lend  itself  to  untechnical  explanation.  .  .  .  Upon  every  page  of  it 
is  stamped  the  impress  of  a  creative  imagination." — Glasgoxv  Herald. 

46.  MATTER  AND  ENERGY 

By  F.  SoDDV,  M.A.,  F.R.S.  "Prof.  Soddy  has  successfully  accomplished 
the  very  difficult  task  of  making  physics  of  absorbing  interest  on  popular 
lines." — Nature. 

49.  PSYCHOLOGY,  THE  STUDY  OF  BEHAVIOUR 

By  Prof.  W.  McDougall,  F.R.S.,  M.B.  "A  happy  example  of  the  non- 
technical handling  of  an  unwieldy  science,  suggesting  rather  than  dogmatising. 
It  should  whet  appetites  for  deeper  study." — Christian  World. 

53.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  EARTH 

By  Prof.  J.  W.  Gregory,  F.R.S.  (With  38  Maps  and  Figures.)  "A 
fascinating  little  volume.  .  .  .  Among  the  many  good  things  contained  in  the 
series  this  takes  a  high  place." — The  Athenaum. 

57.  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

By  A.  Keith,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Conservator  of  Museum  and  Hunterian  Professor, 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons.  (Illustrated.)  "  It  literally  makes  the  'dry  bones' 
to_  live.  It  will  certainly  take  a  high  place  among  the  classics  of  popular 
science." — Manchester  Guardian. 

58.  ELECTRICITY 

By  Gisbert  Kapp,  D.Eng.,  Professor  of  Electrical  Engineering  in  the  Univer- 
sity  of  Birmingham.  (Illustrated.)  "  It  will  be  appreciated  greatly  by  learners 
and  by  the  great  number  of  amateurs  who  are  interested  in  what  is  one  of  the 
most  fascinating  of  scientific  %\.\xi\^%." —Glasgo-jj  Herald. 

62.  THE  ORIGIN  AND  NA  TURE  OF  LIFE 

By  Dr  Benjamin  Moore,  Professor  of  Bio-Chemistry,  University  College, 
Liverpool.    "Stimulating,  learned,  lucid." — Liverpool  Courier. 

67.  CHEMISTRY 

By  Raphael  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  Finsbury  Technical 
College,  London.  Present';  clearly,  without  the  detail  demanded  by  the 
expert,  the  way  in  which  chemical  science  has  developed,  and  the  stage  it  has 
reached. 

72.  PLANT  LIFE 

By  Prof.  J.  B.  Farmer,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.  (Illustrated.)  "  Professor  Farmer  has 
contrived  to  convey  all  the  most  vital  facts  of  plant  physiology,  and  also  to 
present  a  good  many  of  the  chief  problems  which  confront  investigators  to-day 
in  the  realms  of  morphology  and  of  heredity." — Morning  Post. 


78.  THE  OCEAN 

A  General  Account  of  the  Science  of  the  Sea.  By  Sir  John  Murray,  K.C.B., 
F.R.S.  (Illus.)  "A  life's  experience  is  crowded  into  this  volume.  A  very  use- 
ful feature  is  the  ten  pages  of  illustrations  and  coloured  maps  at  the  end."— 
Gloucester  Journal. 

79-  NERVES 

By  Prof.  p.  Eraser  Harris,  M.D.,  D.Sc.  (Illustrated.)  A  description,  in 
non-technical  language,  of  the  nervous  system,  its  intricate  mechanism  and  the 
strange  phenomena  of  energy  and  fatigue,  with  some  practical  reflections. 


Philosophy  and  "Religion 


15.  MOHAMMEDANISM 

By  Prof.  D.  S.  Margoliouth,  M.A.,  D.Litt.  "This  generous  shilling's 
worth  of  wisdom.  ...  A  delicate,  humorous,  and  most  responsible  tractate 
by  an  illuminative  professor." — Daily  Mail. 

40.   THE  PROBLEMS  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

By  the  Hon.  Bertrand  Russell,  F.R.S.  "A  book  that  the  'man  in  the 
street '  will  recognise  at  once  to  be  a  boon.  .  .  .  Consistently  lucid  and  non- 
technical throughout." — Christian  World, 

47.  BUDDHISM 

By  Mrs  Rhys  Davids,  M.A.  "  The  author  presents  very  attractively  as  well 
as  very  learnedly  the  philosophy  of  Buddhism  as  the  greatest  scholars  of  the 
day  interpret  it." — Daily  News. 

50.  NONCONFORMITY:  Its  ORIGIN  and  PROGRESS 

By  Principal  W.  B.  Selbie,  M.A.  "The  historical  part  is  brilliant  inits 
insight,  clarity,  and  proportion;  and  in  the  later  chapters  Dr  Selbie  proves  him- 
self to  be  an  ideal  exponent  of  sound  and  moderate  views." — Christian  World. 

54.  ETHICS 

By  G.  E.  Moore,  M.A.,  Lecturer  in  Moral  Science  in  Cambridge  University. 
"A  very  lucid  though  closely  reasoned  outline  of  the  logic  of  good  conduct." 
—Christian  World. 

56.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

By  Prof.  B.  W.  Bacon,  LL.D.,  D.D.  "Professor  Bacon  has  boldly,  and 
wisely,  taken  his  own  line,  and  has  produced,  as  a  result,  an  extraordinarily 
vivid,  stimulating,  and  lucid  book." — Manchester  Guardian. 

60.  MISSIONS:  THEIR  RISE  and  DEVELOPMENT 

By  Mrs  Creighton.  "Very  interestingly  done.  ...  Its  style  is  simple, 
direct,  unhackneyed,  and  should  find  appreciation  where  a  more  fervently 
pious  style  of  writing  x&pt\s."— Methodist  Recorder. 

68.  COM  PARA  TIVE  RELIGION 

By  Prof.  J. EsTLiNCARPENTER,D.Litt., Principal  of  ManchesterCollege.Oxford. 
"  Puts  into  the  reader's  hand  a  wealth  of  learning  and  independent  thought.  ' 
—Christian  World.  ,^  ,,^ 

74.  A  HISTORY  OF  FREEDOM  OF  THOUGHT 

By  J.  B.  Bury,  Litt.D.,  LL.D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Modern  History  at 
Cambridge.  "A  little  masterpiece,  which  every  thinking  man  will  enjoy." 
—  The  Observer. 

84.  LITERATURE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

'    By  Prof.  George  Moore,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  Harvard.     A  detailed  examination 
of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  light  of  the  most  recent  research. 

6 


Social  Science 


I.  PARLIAMENT 

Its  History,  Constitution,  and  Practice.  By  Sir  Courtenay  P.  Ilbert, 
G.C.B.,  K.C.S.I.,  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Common?.  "  The  best  book  on  the 
history'  and  practice  of  the  House  of  Commons  since  Bagehot's  'Constitution.' " 
— Yorkshire  Pest. 

5.  THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE 

By  F.  VV.  Hirst,  Editor  of  "  The  Economist."  "  To  an  unfinancial  mind  must 
be  a  revelation.  .  .  .  The  book  is  as  clear,  vigorous,  and  sane  as  Bagehot's '  Lom- 
bard Street,'  than  which  there  is  no  higher  CQXTi^\\m.znX.."— Morning  Leader. 

6.  IRISH  NATIONALITY 

By  Mrs  J.  R.  Green.  "  As  glowing  as  it  is  learned.  No  book  could  be  more 
timely." — Daily  News. 

10.  THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT 

By  J.  Ramsay  MacDonald,  M.P.  "  Admirably  adapted  for  the  purpose  of 
exposition." — The  Times. 

II.  CONSERVATISM 

By  Lord  Hugh  Cecil,  M.A.,  M.P.  "  One  of  those  great  little  books  which 
seldom  appear  more  than  once  in  a  generation." — Alornitig  Post. 

16.   THE  SCIENCE  OF  WEALTH 


By  J.  A.  HoBSON,  M.A.  "  Mr  J.  A.  Hobson  holds  an  unique  position  among 
living  economists.  .  .  .  Original,  reasonable,  and  illuminating." — The  Nation. 

21.  LIBERALISM 

By  L.T.  HoBHOUSE,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Sociology  in  the  University  of  London. 
"A  book  of  rare  quality.  .  .  .  We  have  nothing  but  praise  for  the  rapid  and 
masterly  summaries  of  the  arguments  from  first  principles  which  form  a  large 
part  of  this  book." — Westminster  Gazette. 

24.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  INDUSTRY 

By  D.  H.  Macgregor,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  the  University 
of  Leeds.  "  A  volume  so  dispassionate  in  terms  may  be  read  with  profit  by  all 
interested  in  the  present  state  oi  nnTtsX..'"-^Aderdt'en  Journal. 

26.  AGRICULTURE 

By  Prof.  W.  Somerville,  F.L.S.  "It  makes  the  results  of  laboratory  work 
at  the  University  accessible  to  the  practical  farmer." — Athenceutn. 

30.  ELEMENTS  OF  ENGLISH  LA  W 

By  W.  M.  Geldart,  M.A.,  B.C.L.,  Vinerian  Professor  of  English  Law  at 
Oxford.  "  Contains  a  very  clear  account  of  the  elementary  principles  under- 
lying the  rules  of  English  Law." — Scots  Law  Times. 
38.  THE  SCHOOL:  An  Introduction  to  the  Stttdy  ofEdjuation. 
^V  }•  J-  FiNDLAY,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Education  in  Manchester 
University.  "  An  amazingly  comprehensive  volume.  ...  It  is  a  remarkable 
performance,  distinguisherl  in  its  crisp,  striking  phraseology  as  well  as  its 
inclusiveness  of  subject-matter." — Morning  Post. 

59.  ELEMENTS  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY 

By  S.  J.  Chapman,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  Manchester 
University.  "  Its  importance  is  not  to  be  measured  by  its  price.  Probably 
the  best  recent  critical  exposition  of  the  analytical  method  in  economic 
science." — Glasgow  Herald. 


69.    THE  NEWSPAPER        By  G  Binney  D.bblee,  M.A.    (Illus. 

; ; trated.)    The  best  account  extant  of  the 

organisation  of  the  newspaper  press,  at  home  and  abroad. 

Tj.  SHELLEY,  GODWIN,  AND  THEIR  CIRCLE 

By  H.  N.  Brailsford,  M.  A.  "  Mr  Brailsford  sketches  vividly  the  influence  of 
the  French  Revolution  on  Shelley's  and  Godwin's  England;  and  the  charm  and 
strength  of  his  style  make  his  book  an  authentic  contribution  to  literature."— 
The  Bookman. 

80.  CO-PARTNERSHIP   AND   PROFIT-SHARING 

ByANEURiNWiLLiAMS,  M.  A.—"  A  judiciousbut  enthusiastic  history,  with  much 
interesting  speculation  on  the  future  of  Co-partnership." — Christian  World. 

8 1.  PROBLEMS  OF  VILLAGE  LIFE 

By  E.  N.  Bennett,  M.A.  Discusses  the  leading  aspects  of  the  British  land 
problem,  including  housing,  small  holdings,  rural  credit,  and  the  minimum  wage. 

83.  COMMON-SENSE  IN  LAW     ^^'^^'  ^-  Vinogradoff, 

85.    UNEMPLOYMENT       By  Prof.  A.  C.  PiGOU,  M.A. 

In  Preparation 

ANCIENT  EGYPT.    By  F.  Ll.  Griffith,  M.A. 

THE  ANCIENT  EAST.    By  D.  G.  Hogarth,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 

A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  EUROPE.     By  Herbert  Fisher,  LL.D. 

THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.     By  Norman  H.  Bavnes. 

THE  REFORM  A  TION.    By  President  Lindsay,  LL.D. 

A  SHOR T  HISTORY  OF  R  USSIA.     By  Prof.  Milyoukov. 

MODERN  TURKEY.    By  D.  G.  Hogarth,  M.A. 

FRANCE  OF  TO-DAY.    By  Albert  Thomas. 

HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.    By  Prof.  R.  S.  Rait,  M.A. 

LA  TIN  AMERICA.    By  Prof.  W.  R.  Shepherd. 

HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE   OF  SPAIN.      By  J.    Fitzmaurice- 

Kelly,  F.B.A.,  Litt.D. 
LA  TIN  LITER  A  TURE.    By  Prof.  J.  S.  Phillimore. 
THE  RENAISSANCE.     By  Miss  Edith  Sichel. 
ITALIAN  ART  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE.    By  Roger  E.  Fry. 
LITERARY  TASTE.    By  Thomas  Seccombe. 
CHA  UCER  AND  HIS  TIME.     By  Miss  G.  E.  Hadow. 
WILLIAM  MORRIS  AND  HIS  CIRCLE.     By  A.  Glutton  Brock. 
SCANDINA  VIAN  HISTORY  &»  LITER  A  TURE.    By  T.  C.  Snow. 
THE  MINERAL  WORLD.     By  Sir  T.  H.  Holland,  K.C.LE.,  D.Sc. 
SEX.     By  Prof.  J,  A.  Thomson  and  Prof.  Patrick  Geddes. 
THE  GROWTH  OF  EUROPE.     By  Prof.  Grenville  Cole. 
BETWEEN    THE    OLD    AND    NEW    TESTAMENTS.       By    Canon 

R.  H.  Charles,  D.D. 
A  HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY.    By  Clement  Webb,  M.A. 
POLITICAL     THOUGHT    IN   ENGLAND:     From   Bacon    to    Locke. 

By  G.  P.  Gooch,  M.A. 
POLITICAL    THOUGHT  IN  ENGLAND:     From  Bentham   to  J.    S. 

Mill.     By  Prof.  W.  L.  Davidson. 
POLITICAL     THOUGHT   IN   ENGLAND:      From   Herbert    Spencer 

to  To-day.    By  Ernest  Barker,  M.A. 
THE  CRIMINAL  A  ND  THE  COMMUNITY.    By  Viscount  St.  Cyres. 
THE  CIVIL  SERVICE.     By  Graham  Wallas,  M.A. 
THE  SOCIAL  SETTLEMENT.     By  Jane  Addams  and  R.  A.  Woods. 
GREA  T  INVENTIONS.     By  Prof.  J.  L.  Myres,  M.A.,  F.S.  A. 
TO  WN  PL  A  NNING.    By  Raymond  Unwin. 

London:    WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE 

And  of  all  Bookshops  and  Bookstalls. 


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